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-last  of  the  Mississippi  River 
before  1860. 

New  Enelanl  Settlement 
^!1  All  Other  Settlement  , 


PCTKRS.    CNCftS., 


THE  EXPANSION  OF 
NEW  ENGLAND 

THE  SPREAD  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  SETTLEMENT 

AND  INSTITUTIONS  TO  THE 

MISSISSIPPI  RIVER 

1620-1865 

LOIS  KIMBALL  MATHEWS       1?^s.^v^  \>^>rr<^ 

09 

INSTRUCTOR  IN  HISTORY  IN  VASSAR  COLLEGE 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


msmsmmB\ 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

1909 


F.l 


-ku 


eE«tw^^ 


COPYRIGHT,   1909,   BY  LOIS  KIMBALL  MATHEWS 
ALL   RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  November  iqoq 


-^07^C>4'> 


3|n  ^emotiam 
G.  R  M. 


PREFACE 

The  present  study  is  an  attempt  to  untangle,  from  the 
complex  skein  of  our  national  history,  the  one  strand  of 
the  New  England  element.  In  attempting  to  set  forth 
clearly  and  convincingly  one  phase  of  our  development, 
it  may  seem  that  a  loss  of  proportion  and  of  perspective 
has  resulted.  The  study  makes  no  pretensions  to  being 
either  complete  or  exhaustive ;  but  it  is  sent  out  with  the 
hope  that  it  may  at  least  suggest  some  new  points  of 
view. 

The  initial  impulse  to  the  work,  and  much  of  its  spirit, 
are  due  to  Professor  Frederick  J.  Turner,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin.  The  actual  beginnings  of  the  study 
were  made  at  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University  during 
1903-04,  in  a  seminar  conducted  by  Professor  Max 
Farrand,  now  of  Yale  University.  The  next  stage  of 
development  was  reached  under  the  guidance  of  Profes- 
sor Edward  Channing,  resulting  in  the  presentation  of 
the  study  in  thesis  form  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the 
requirements  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  at 
Radcliffe  College.  Since  that  time  it  has  been  expanded 
and  almost  entirely  reconstructed,  to  be  published  in  its 
present  form.  The  author  has  in  preparation  another 
study  designed  to  supplement  this  one,  having  as  its 
theme  New  England  settlement  beyond  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  in  the  South  since  1865. 

It  would  be  impossible  for  the  author  to  acknowledge 


viii  PREFACE 

all  the  suggestions  and  aid  of  which  she  has  availed  her- 
self in  this  study ;  but  she  wishes  to  express  her  especial 
indebtedness  to  those  above  mentioned  with  whom  so 
much  of  the  work  was  done,  and  to  Professor  Lucy  M. 
Salmon,  to  Mr.  Payson  J.  Treat,  and  to  Professor  J. 
Leverett  Moore. 

L.  K.  M. 

Vassar  College,  Poughkeepsie,  New  York. 
February,  1909. 


^ 


^    OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I.  Introduction 1 

Unique  character  of  American  History  —  Due  to  large  areas  of  unoccu- 
pied land  in  the  wesl(sU^auses  of  pioneering  from  England  to  New  Eng- 
land —  Religious  —  Political  —  Economic  —  Social  —  From  New  England 
to  the  west  —  Character  of  the  frontier  —  Mutual  distrust  betwewi  frontier 
and  settled  community  —  Illustrations  of  New  England  influenced 

CHAPTER  II.  The  Beginnings  of  an  American  Frontier     .    11 

Settlement  of  Plymouth  —  Causes  of  settlement  —  Character  of  people 

—  Of  settlement  —  First  offshoots  of  Plymouth  —  Other  Massachusetts 
settlements  before  1629  —  Settlement  of  New  Hampshire  —  Settlement  of 
Maine  coast  —  Settlement  of  Massachusetts  Bay  —  Character  of  settlement 
to  1635  —  Settlement  of  Connecticut  —  Removals  from  Massachusetts 
Bay  —  Emigration  from  England  —  Character  of  settlement  —  Settlement 
of  Springfield  —  Settlement  of  Rhode  Island  —  Pequot  War  —  Type  of 
later  wars  —  Services  it  rendered  future  pioneering  —  Settlement  after 
Pequot  War  —  New  character  of  settlement  —  Extension  of  settlement  in 
older  colonies  —  Connecticut  —  Massachusetts  —  Counter-current,  and  in- 
ducements offered  in  new  settlements  —  Expansion  of   New  Hampshire 

—  Government  of  New  Hampshire  towns  —  Growth  of  Maine  —  Growth 
of  Rhode  Island  —  Settlement  of  Long  Island  —  Government  of  Long 
Island  towns  —  Overflow  into  Westchester  County,  New  York  —  Charac- 
ter of  frontier  line  in  1660  —  Restriction  on  removal  from  frontier  line  — 
Character  of  New  England  in  1660  —  Common  desire  for  religious  free- 
dom factor  in  settlement  —  Shown  in  plan  of  town  —  Also  in  union  of 
church  and  state  —  The  prevalence  of  town-meeting  idea  —  Tradition  of 
popular  education  established. 

CHAPTER  III.    The   Influence   of    Indian   Warfare   upon 


Revival  of  emigration  from  England  under  Charles  II  —  Increasing  ill-will 
of  Indians  —  New  charters  granted  after  1660 —  Connecticut  —  Rhode  Is- 
land —  Acquisition  of  New  Netherland  —  Proclamation  of  Duke  of  York's 
laws  —  Grant  of  New  Jersey  to  Berkeley  and  Carteret  —  Rapidity  of  set- 


X  CONTENTS 

tlement  1660-1675  —  In  Massachusetts  —  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  — 
Bhode  Island  —  Connecticut  —  Long  Island  —  New  Jersey  —  Conditions  in 
1675  —  King  Philip's  war  a  great  blow  to  all  the  colonies  except  New  Jer- 
sey and  New  York  (including  Long  Island )  —  Character  of  period  1675- 
1713  —  Almost  continuous  warfare  the  outgrowth  of  European  struggles 

—  Peace  only  an  armed  truce  —  Precautions  against  reckless  extension  of 
the  frontier  —  Conditions  in  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  —  Massachusetts 

—  Rhode  Island  —  Connecticut  — Emigration  to  Westchester  County,  New 
York  —  To  New  Jersey  —  To  Dorchester,  South  Carolina —  The  founding 
of  a  second  New  England  college  —  Estimates  of  population  about  1713  — 
Differentiation  of  coast  and  frontier. 


CHAPTER  IV.  Forty  Years  of  Strife  with  the  Wilderness, 

1713-1754 76 

Character  of  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  —  Effect  of  the  peace  upon  settlement  in 
Massachusetts,  especially  Worcester  County  —  Hampshire  County  —  Berk- 
shire County  —  Speculation  a  marked  feature  of  the  period  —  Especially 
in  Massachusetts  —  Maine  —  New  Hampshire  —  Expansion  of  settlement 
in  Massachusetts  —  Maine — New  Hampshire  —  Vermont  settlement  be- 
gun —  Rhode  Island,  merely  growth  in  density  of  population  —  Connecti- 
cut, new  towns  and  new  parishes  —  Long  Island,  growth  in  population  — 
Putnam,  Delaware,  and  Orange  Counties  in  New  York  —  Settlement  in 
Georgia  at  Med  way  —  Movement  for  public  improvements,  —  roads, 
bridges,  and  ferries  —  Conflicting  tendencies  of  the  period  1713  to  1754  — 
Lack  of  opportunity  for  investment  because  of  English  parliamentary  pol- 
icy —  Causes  of  repression  of  tendency  to  expansion  —  Fear  of  Indians  — 
Difficulty  in  obtaining  clear  titles  —  Decreasing  quantity  of  good  land 
available  —  Differentiation  between  coast  towns  and  interior  settlements 
—  England's  attitude  one  of  distrust,  as  in  financial  matters  —  Preparation 
for  the  Seven  Years'  War. 


CHAPTER  V.  The  Frontier  in  War  and  in  Peace,  1754- 
1781 108 

Dangers  of  the  early  part  of  the  period  1750-1781  —  Effect  of  the  French 
and  Indian  War  upon  the  frontier  line  —  Rush  of  settlers  to  the  frontier 
after  1758  —  Western  Massachusetts  —  Western  Connecticut  —  New 
Hampshire  —  Maine  —  Vermont — Effect  of  the  Proclamation  of  1763 
upon  extension  of  settlement  —  Pennsylvania  settlements  —  Delaware 
Company's  towns  —  Susquehanna  Company's  towns  —  Organization  of 
town  of  Westmoreland  —  The  Lackaway  Settlement  —  The  Phineas 
Lyman  colony  in  West  Florida  —  The  Nantucket  emigration  to  North 
Carolina  —  Effect  of  the  Revolution  upon  expansion  —  Character  of  the 


CONTENTS  XI 

war  as  a  frontier  struggle  —  Contraction  of  the  frontier  line  —  Com- 
bined with  its  extension —  Pouring  out  of  the  tide  of  emigration  after  1780 
—  Change  in  conditions  after  the  Revolution  —  Poverty  leads  to  neglect  of 
churches  and  schools  —  Rise  of  movement  for  academies  —  Founding  of 
Dartmouth  College  —  New  ideas  of  liberty  lead  to  conflicts  between 
proprietors  and  settlers  —  Vermont  and  her  neighbors  —  Increasing  differ- 
entiation between  coast  and  frontier. 


CHAPTER  VI.  The   Beginning    of  the  Great   Migrations 
FROM  New  England  toward  the  West,  1781-1812  .    .    .  139 

Impetus  to  emigration  after  the  Revolution  —  Lines  of  expansion  —  To 
New  Hampshire  —  To  Maine  —  To  Vermont  —  These  three  states  from 
1812  to  1850— -Character  of  settlement  1781  to  1850  — General  obser- 
vation on  northern  New  England —  Founding  of  Bowdoin  College  — Dif- 
ferentiation of  pioneers  at  the  beginning  of  the  great  western  emigrations  — 
New  England  in  Pennsylvania  —  Founding  of  Alleghany  College  —  Great 
emigration  to  New  York  —  East  of  the  Hudson  River  —  Enormous  expan- 
sion of  central  and  western  New  York  —  The  Phelps-Gorham  tract  —  Re- 
presentative towns  —  Representative  settlers  —  Characteristics  of  New 
Englanders  in  New  York  —  Tendency  to  establish  public  worship  —  Dif- 
ference between  New  England  and  New  York  Congregationalism  —  Re- 
vival of  missionary  spirit  in  New  England  —  Transplanting  of  the  town- 
meeting  —  Its  combination  with  the  county  system  —  R^sum^  of  New 
York  settlement  —  Timothy  Dwight's  testimony  —  Shifting  of  interest 
after  1812. 


CHAPTER  VII.  The  Planting  of  a  Second  New  England, 

1787-1865 171 

Pressure  upon  the  frontier-line  just  after  the  Revolution  —  Essential 
difference  between  method  of  settlement  in  Ohio  and  the  thirteen  original 
states  —  Indian  treaties  entered  into  by  the  general  government  to  make 
Ohio  habitable  —  The  mode  of  settlement  in  the  Western  Reserve  —  First 
New  England  settlement  in  Ohio  —  Character  of  Marietta  settlement  — 
Typical  pioneers  of  Marietta  —  Beginning  of  settlement  in  the  Western 
Reserve  —  James  Kilboume  and  his  "  Scioto  Company  "  —  Character  of 
settlement  in  the  Western  Reserve  —  Settlement  of  Granville  —  Effect  of 
War  of  1812  upon  the  frontier  line  —  Development  of  Ohio  after  1815  — 
Timothy  Flint's  observations  —  The  Oberlin  colony  —  Its  offshoots  in 
other  states  —  Character  of  Ohio  churches  —  Ohio's  educational  policy  — 
Reservation  of  township  sixteen  in  every  section  —  Development  of  public 
school  system  —  Western  Reserve  College  —  The  town  and  county  system 
in  Ohio  —  R^sum^  of  Ohio  settlement  to  1865. 


arii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VIII.  The  Joining  of  Two  Frontiers  :  Indiana 
AND  Illinois,  1809-1865 196 

General  character  of  settlement  iu  Indiana  and  Illinois  —  Growth  of  set- 
tlement in  Indiana  before  1816,  as  a  territory  —  After  1816,  as  a  state  — 
General  location  of  New  England  settlement  —  New  England  counties  — 
New  England  towns  —  Typical  pioneers  —  Influence  of  the  New  England 
element  upon  education  in  Indiana — Upon  churches  —  Upon  local 
government  —  Illinois  settlement  up  to  1818  —  Sectional  antagonism  in 
Illinois  —  Mutual  distrust  of  southern  settlers  and  New  England  element  j 

—  Causes  of  this  distrust  —  Climax  of  the  antagonism  about  1840-1842  — 
Great  influx  of  New  England  immigrants  after  1830  —  Effect  of  the  Black 
Hawk  War  —  Literature  on  emigration  scattered  broadcast  at  this  time  — 
New  England  colonies  in  Illinois  —  Indifference  to  fertile  prairie  soil 
shown*'by  first  settlers  —  Distribution  of  New  England  element  in  Illi- 
nois—  Shown  by  Congregational  churches  —  Illinois  College  a  child  of 
Yale  —  Triumph  of  the  township  system  —  Schools  founded  by  New  Eng- 
land settlers. 

CHAPTER  IX.  The  New  Englanders  as  State  Builders  : 

Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  1820-1860 221 

Settlement  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  taking  place  chiefly  in  period 
1825  to  1850  —  Reasons  for  slow  progress  of  settlement  in  Michigan  — 
Great  influence  of  completion  of  Erie  Canal  and  rise  of  steamboat  naviga- 
tion—  Successive  stages  of  law-making  in  Michigan,  showing  changing 
stages  of  settlement  —  Character  of  Michigan  settlers  —  Arrival  of  New 
England  element  —  Routes  of  travel  from  Detroit  —  Type  of  pioneer  — 
New  England  colonies,  especially  Vermontville  —  Influence  of  Marietta, 
Ohio,  settlers  —  Nativity  of  governors  of  Michigan  —  Michigan  schools  — 
Normal  schools  —  The  state  university  —  Olivet  CoDege  —  Congregation- 
^alism  in  Michigan — The  Michigan  town-meeting  —  Wisconsin  almost  a 
wilderness  in  1826  —  Lead-mining  district  first  settled  —  Influence  of 
Black  Hawk  War  in  promoting  settlement  —  County  and  township  system 
both  in  existence  in  territorial  days  —  Final  triumph  of  New  York  system 

—  Character  of  New  England  settlement  in  Wisconsin  —  Racine  County  — 
Founding  of  Beloit  —  Schools  in  Wisconsin  —  Congregationalism  in  Wis- 
consin —  Character  and  nativity  of  prominent  citizens  —  Resemblance  be- 
tween Michigan  and  Wisconsin. 


CHAPTER  X.  Two  Centuries  and  a  Half  of  New  England 

/       Pioneering,  1620-1865 \  250 

/      R^sum4  of  New  England  pioneering  —  Character  of  the  emigration  —  \  * 
/    Factors  which  have  been  operative  in  New  England  emigration  —  Trans-      \ 
\  planting  Puritan  institutions  —  Reaction  of  the  frontier  upon  the  older       ' 
parts  of  the  country  —  Changing  character  of  New  England  population. 


LIST  OF  MAPS 

New  England  Settlement  east  of  the  Mississippi  River  before  1860 

Frontispiece 

New  England  Settlement,  1629 Facing  15 

Settlements  on  the  Connecticut  River,  1637 21 

New  England  Settlement,  1637,  just  before  the  Pequot  War     Facing  23 

New  England  Settlement,  1660 'r "         35 

New  England  Settlement,  1675,  just  before  King  Philip's  War  «  56 
New  England  Settlement,  1677,  just  after  King  Philip's  War  «  57 
New  England  Settlement  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey, 

1700 «        66 

Dorchester  Colony,  South  Carolina,  1695-96 68 

New  England  Settlement,  1713 Facing  70 

New  England  Settlement  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey, 

1750 "        95 

Dorchester  Colony,  South  Carolina,  and  Medway  Colony, 

Georgia,  1752 96 

New  England  Settlement,  1754 Facing  99 

New  England  Settlement  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 

Pennsylvania,  1775 "       125 

New  England  Settlement  in  the  South,  1781 «       127 

New  England  Settlement,  1781 "       136 

New  England  Setilement,  1812 "       140 


xiv  LIST  OF  MAPS 

New  England  Settlement  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 

Pennsylvania,  1790 Facing  161 

New  England  Settlement  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 

Pennsylvania,  1800 "       155 

New  England  Settlement  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 

Pennsylvania,  1810 «       159 

New  England  Settlement  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 

Pennsylvania,  1820 "       168 

New  England  Settlement  in  Ohio,  1790 «       175 

New  England  Settlement  in  Ohio,  1800 «       178 

New  England  Settlement  in  Ohio,  1810 «       182 

Emigration  of  Friends  from  North  Carolina  to  Tennessee, 

then  to  Indiana «       199 

New  England  Settlement  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois, 

1820 «       206 

New  England  Settlement  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 

Michigan,  1830 "       210 

New  England  Settlement  in  the  Old  Northwest  Territory, 

1840 "236 

New  England  Settlement  in  the  Old  Northwest  Territory, 

1850 «      246 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

The  history  of  the  spread  of  settlement  in  the  United 
States  is  the  story  of  an  ever-retreating  wilderness,  an 
ever-advancing  frontier.  From  the  first  straggling  vil- 
lages stretched  in  a  thin,  wavering  line  along  the  At-* 
lantic  Coast,  their  inhabitants  the  frontiersmen  of  the 
England  they  had  left  behind,  bands  of  pioneers,  re- 
cruited by  successive  generations,  have  penetrated  slowly 
and  steadily  into  the  wilderness.  It  is  this  feature  of 
American  history  that  is  unique,  —  that  from  1607  until 
about  a  decade  and  a  half  ago  there  had  always  been  a 
frontier  in  the  United  States,  a  "  far  west "  where  areas 
of  cheap  land  were  large  and  plenty,  where  there  were 
few  or  no  inhabitants.  The  far  west  has  receded  before 
the  homeseeker  since  the  time  when  hardy  Englishmen 
began  their  towns  on  the  James  River  and  on  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  —  then  the  far  west  to  their  comrades  in 
England, — until  now  the  term  is  applied  only  to  the  ter- 
ritory beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains.  With  the  retreat 
of  this  receding  region,  the  frontier  has  moved  on  also, 
the  one  marking  the  outer  confines  of  the  other.  It  was 
with  the  vanishing  of  the  frontier  in  1892,  when  prac- 
tically all  the  government  land  had  been  marked  off  into 
farms  or  cattle  ranges,  and  every  county  in  the  United 


2       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

States  had  a  few  inhabitants,  that  the  first  period  of  our 
history  really  closed.  That  period  has  been  subdivided 
and  studied  in  its  political  and  constitutional  aspects ; 
but  until  recently  what  seems  to  be  its  real  character,  its 
unique  quality,  has  been  ignored/  Yet  this  character 
has  often  furnished  the  key  to  some  whole  period.  The 
frontier  and  the  builder  of  it — these  have  been  potent 
factors  in  the  growth  and  the  development  of  the  United 
States ;  for  the  pioneer  has  been  influenced  by  the  insti- 
tutions and  the  character  of  his  old  home  in  England  or 
upon  the  coast,  and  has  in  turn  brought  to  bear  upon 
those  older  regions  influences  which  originated  in  his 
Western  home.  The  conservatism  of  the  established 
community  and  the  radicalism  of  the  frontier  have  acted 
and  reacted  upon  each  other,  producing  finally  the  com- 
promise between  the  two  which  makes  the  individuality 
of  the  United  States. 

The  causes  of  frontier-making  have  been  many  and 
varied.  The  first  settlers  came  from  England  with 
mingled  motives,  of  which  the  most  potent  were  prob- 
ably the  religious  difficulties  which  became  acute  under 
Stuart  rule.^  Certain  it  is  that  the  desire  to  worship  God 
in  his  own  way  led  many  a  Puritan  to  Massachusetts 
Bay  in  the  days  of  James  I  and  his  son  Charles.  It  is 
significant,  too,  that  emigration  to  America  fell  off  when 

1  Professor  Frederick  J.  Turner,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  has 
done  more  than  any  other  person  to  call  attention  to  the  significance  of 
the  frontier  in  our  history.  To  his  suggestive  articles  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly ^ 
the  American  Historical  Review^  and  elsewhere,  I  desire  to  acknowledge  my 
indebtedness  at  every  stage  of  my  work. 

2  See  G.  L.  Beer,  The  Origin  of  the  British  Colonial  Systems,  1578-1660 
(New  York,  1908).  Chapters  i  and  ii  give  a  discussion  of  the  causes  for 
emigration  from  England. 


INTRODUCTION  3 

Puritanism  triumphed  under  Cromwell.  So  closely,  how- 
ever, were  religious  and  political  questions  associated  in 
the  minds  of  the  opponents  to  royalty,  that  devotion  to 
democratic  ideals  and  to  a  form  of  government  where 
middle-class  interests  were  uppermost  was  curiously 
intermingled  in  the  minds  of  our  ancestors  with  their 
ideas  of  democracy  in  church  as  well  as  in  state.  At  all 
events,  the  first  settlers  in  New  England  were  radicals 
in  religion  and  in  politics,  —  and  they  emigrated,  as 
many  a  radical  among  their  descendants  has  done. 

Economic  difficulties  also  forced  many  a  pioneer  to 
America.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  when  times  were 
still  "  hard  "  in  Europe,  as  a  result  of  the  monetary  and 
economic  disturbances  brought  about  by  the  great  influx 
of  gold  and  silver  from  the  New  World,  many  a  younger 
son  betook  himself  to  a  region  where  his  fallen  fortunes 
might  be  retrieved.  The  shifting  of  industry  in  Eng- 
land under  Elizabeth  and  James  had  made  many  a  peer 
envious  of  the  newer  aristocracy  which  owed  its  title 
to  the  wealth  acquired  through  trade  and  commerce, 
and  had  contributed  not  a  little  to  a  desire  on  the  part 
of  the  younger  men  to  try  their  fortunes  across  the  sea. 
As  knowledge  of  the  New  World  increased,  its  oppor- 
tunities seemed  more  varied  and  more  alluring.  Chances 
for  agriculture  were  great  where  limitless  tracts  of  land 
lay  unappropriated,  and  ownership  in  land  was  most 
highly  regarded  not  only  as  a  road  to  wealth,  but  as  the 
basis  of  social  and  political  position.  Opportunities  for 
trade  and  commerce  also  offered  possibilities  for  making 
money;  —  the  fur-trade  was  long  a  rich  field  for  an 
energetic  young  Englishman,  and  mines  of  gold  and 


4       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

silver  have  always  loomed  large  among  the  probable 
resources  of  a  new  country. 

Besides  these  tangible  causes  for  emigration,  there 
were  the  more  subtle  but  no  less  real  ones  of  restless- 
ness and  discontent  with  the  life  of  settled  communities. 
The  Wanderlust  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  blood  had  been 
potent  in  urging  Englishmen  to  a  part  in  the  Crusades 
and  later  to  voyages  of  exploration  and  discovery.  Now 
it  assumed  the  form  it  had  taken  in  earlier  centuries, 
and  impelled  not  only  individuals,  but  families,  and 
groups  of  families,  to  emigration  over  seas.  Love  of 
adventure,  curiosity  concerning  unknown  lands,  dreams 
of  prosperity  impossible  under  their  present  condition, 
—  all  these  have  played  a  part  in  recruiting  the  ranks 
of  pioneers  to  the  New  World. 
\P  I  The  motives  which  impelled  the  second  generation  of 
Kyj  jf^frentiersmen,  sons  of  the  settlers  upon  the  coast,  to  lead 
^  I    the  march  to  the  interior,  have  been  very  like  those  of 

i  their  fathers.  Here  again  the  desire  for  economic,  reli- 

gious, and  political  freedom  has  played  its  part,  for  the 
tendency  of  those  portions  of  the  country  first  peopled 
has  been  to  grow  conservative,  and  even  to  crystallize, 
as  England  had  seemed  to  have  done  when  the  first 
emigrants  left  her  shores.  As  the  towns  on  the  coast 
grew  slower  to  change  character  and  institutions,  the 
more  radical  spirits  began  to  chafe,  and  to  turn  to  newer 
sections  where  they  might  be  unhampered  by  either  tra- 
dition or  habit.  They  have  not,  however,  been  wholly 
divested  of  either,  and  have  turned  as  their  fathers  had 
^  done  to  the  civilization  of  their  birthplace  for  prece- 
dents, compromising,  conceding,  and  readjusting  because 


INTRODUCTION  5 

of  new  conditions  and  new  elements,  and  thus  shaping 
institutions  which  were  neither  wholly  new  nor  entirely 
old.  Again  and  again,  with  each  succeeding  generation, 
has  the  process  been  repeated,  with  England  as  the 
background,  the  older  colonies  as  the  ^^  middle  distance," 
and  the  newest  of  our  states  as  the  foreground.  [The 
story  of  the  frontier  is  not  merely  a  study  of  settle- 
ments ;  it  is  also  a  study  of  institutions  transplanted  and 
transformed,  the  old  ones  influencing  the  new  ones,  the 
new  ones  reacting  upon  the  old,  making  the  latter 
broader  and  more  flexible.  In  this  way  the  spirit  of 
radicalism  so  conspicuous  among  the  pioneer's  motives 
has  been  immeasurably  helpful  to  the  country  as  a  whole. 
But  along  with  the  pioneer's  radicalism  and  some- 
times excessive  individualism  have  gone  other  motives, 
such  as  the  desire  for  greater  material  prosperity,  which, 
as  has  been  said,  had  urged  on  many  of  the  first  emi- 
grants from  England.  The  great  stretches  of  fertile 
lands,  cheap  and  plenty,  have  lured  many  a  settler  to 
the  West.  The  extensive  tracts  of  timber  land  have 
offered  opportunities  for  wealth,  as  have  also  the  mines ; 
and  the  well-nigh  limitless  cattle  ranges,  together  with 
the  salt  marshes,  are  mentioned  again  and  again  by 
pioneers  as  a  great  inducement  to  emigration.  Nor  is  the 
desire  for  prosperity  solely  a  selfish  one ;  it  is  usually 
bound  up  with  the  hope  that  the  children  may  have 
advantages  denied  to  the  fathers  and  mothers,  and  be 
spared  the  hardships  of  frontier  life.  This  desire  is  again 
an  impelling  force  in  each  succeeding  generation,  urg- 
ing on  the  unsuccessful  together  with  the  ambitious  and 
the  venturesome. 


6       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

With  these  causes  and  motives,  what  shall  be  said  of 
the  character  of  the  frontier?  In  the  first  place,  there  is 
the  tendency  to  radicalism  in  all  matters.  The  conserv- 
ative element  always  tends  to  remain  in  settled  portions 
of  the  country,  where  conditions  are  fairly  determinate, 
and  where  results  may  be  estimated  roughly  at  least. 
Dissatisfaction  in  a  conservative  does  not  readily  become 
so  acute  as  to  impel  removal  to  an  isolated,  unknown 
region,  to  begin  life  anew  in  unfamiliar  surroundings. 
It  has  been  upon  the  whole  the  radical  who  has  moved, 
the  conservative  who  has  stayed.  Moreover,  the  pioneers 
have  usually  been  men  and  women  not  beyond  the 
prime  of  life,  and  most  frequently  they  have  been 
young,  with  the  faults  and  virtues  of  youth, — frank- 
ness, impulsiveness,  courage,  impatience  over  restraint, 
hope  well-nigh  unlimited.  All  these  qualities  have  been 
needed  if  the  hardships  of  frontier  life  were  to  be  over- 
come, and  all  of  them  have  been  exemplified  again  and 
again  in  the  march  of  settlement  across  the  continent. 

Certain  other  characteristics  stand  out  clearly.  In- 
dependence of  thought  and  of  action  along  religious, 
moral,  and  economic  lines  has  always  been  a  significant 
feature  of  frontier  life.  While  the  Congregational 
Church  was  still  dominant  in  New  England,  descendants 
of  the  Puritans  were  living  peacefully  in  Wisconsin 
towns,  where  at  least  seven  denominations  had  churches, 
and  in  lieu  of  an  organization  of  their  own,  sometimes 
allied  themselves  with  Methodists  or  Baptists  or  Pres- 
byterians. Without  any  judiciary  at  their  command,  the 
early  settlers  often  took  such  crimes  as  horse-stealing 
into  their  own  hands,  and  lynched  the  thief  with  little 


INTRODUCTION  7 

formality.  In  the  field  of  economics,  colonial  ideas  of 
the  relation  existing  between  England  and  her  subjects 
across  the  Atlantic  seemed  to  the  British  Parliament  as 
crude  and  unscientific  as  the  Western  agitation  for  free 
silver  in  1896  seemed  to  New  England  conservatism. 
Such  independence  has  frequently  been  the  outcome 
of  another  trait,  —  excessive  individualism.  Inability  to 
adapt  one's  self  and  one's  ideas  to  the  prevailing  order 
of  things  in  any  community  has  made  many  a  "chronic 
pioneer/'  who  has  emigrated  at  short  intervals  from  one 
settlement  to  another,  until  old  age  has  overtaken  him. 
One  finds  such  men  to-day  in  the  least  thickly  populated 
portions  of  the  West,  — men  who  found  CaHfornia 
stifling  in  1855,  and  perhaps  settled  down  reluctantly  in 
northern  Montana  in  1890.  Western  Canada  is  at  this 
moment  illustrating  the  same  point.  With  the  accumu- 
lation of  wealth,  this  individualism  often  gives  way  to 
a  self-complacency  born  of  a  pride  concerning  hardships 
overcome,  —  the  pride  of  the  "  self-made  man."  Such 
an  attitude  of  mind  is  easily  comprehended  by  any  one 
who  has  watched  a  Western  city  develop  from  a  few  log 
cabins  to  a  commercial  centre  numbering  its  inhabitants 
by  hundreds  of  thousands,  all  within  a  half-century.  It 
is  this  complacency  which  has  bred  the  provincialism 
common  in  new  communities. 

On  the  other  hand,  side  by  side  with  this  excessive 
individualism  exists  a  strong  social  sense,  which  is  one 
of  the  most  attractive  characteristics  of  pioneer  life. 
Such  a  sense  is  illustrated  in  the  house  and  barn  rais- 
ings of  any  frontier  community,  where  all  the  settlers 
for  miles  around  come  to  give  their  help  without  pay, 


8       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

but  With  the  tacit  understanding  that  such  assistance 
will  be  repaid  in  kind  if  necessity  demand  it.  Quilting- 
bees,  log-rollings,  and  corn-huskings,  where  the  whole 
country-side  assembled,  have  marked  the  social  life  of 
all  frontier  communities.  The  survival  of  such  a  spirit 
can  still  be  found  at  harvest  time  in  Iowa  or  Minnesota, 
where  the  neighborhood  comes  together  first  at  one  farm, 
then  at  another,  to  assist  in  threshing. 

All  these  characteristics  tend  to  disappear  with  settled 
economic  and  social  conditions,  and  radicalism  gives  way 
to  conservatism,  provincialism  breaks  down  before  edu- 
cation and  travel,  and  the  new  community  tends  to  grow 
more  and  more  like  the  old.  Yet  there  are  differences 
which  are  never  leveled  down,  which  yield  a  wholesome 
opposition  most  necessary  to  progress.  From  the  begin- 
ning, elements  from  all  the  various  parts  of  the  country 
have  mingled,  and  the  result  has  been  to  produce  types 
which  are  reminiscent  of  their  origin,  though  they  do 
not  exactly  reproduce  it.  Most  of  the  colonial  pioneers 
were  offshoots  of  a  common  English  stock,  from  the 
same  social  class  in  Devonshire  or  Somersetshire  or  York- 
shire or  some  other  English  county,  but  new  environ- 
ment and  changed  conditions  altered  them  in  their  trans- 
Atlantic  homes,  till  the  different  local  divisions  took  on 
different  characteristics,  and  the  Virginian  was  easily 
distinguished  from  the  man  of  Massachusetts,  and  the 
Pennsylvanian  from  either.  Within  New  England  itself, 
the  Vermont  type  was  unlike  that  of  eastern  Massachu- 
setts. Pushing  in  beyond  the  confines  of  New  England, 
in  New  York  and  the  Northwest,  these  sons  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  her  neighbors  were  thrown  with  pioneers 


INTRODUCTION  9 

from  the  Middle  States  and  from  the  South,  and  the 
population  became  further  differentiated  from  that  of 
any  of  the  older  states,  while  the  institutions  reflected 
earlier  ones  found  in  all.  Yet  with  care  one  can  untangle 
certain  strands  in  the  skein,  and  the  object  of  this  study^ 
is  to  ascertain  roughly  what  part  New  England  has 
played  as  a  frontier^Eoaker;  —  how  she  has  founded 
towns  and  institutions  not  only  within  her  own  borders, 
but  far  beyond  the  Hudson  and  the  Alleghanies. 

Accident  cannot  explain  the  homogeneous  character 
of  the  institutions  of  the  New  England  States ;  for  de- 
spite differences  in  the  character  of  the  people,  the  insti- 
tutions they  have  wrought  bear  a  striking  similarity 
one  to  another.  The  reason  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
when  one  has  traced  the  pioneers  from  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  who  builded  together  to  make  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  who  united  with  frontiersmen  from  New  York 
to  frame  Vermont's  constitution.  Why  should  western 
Massachusetts  bear  a  closer  resemblance  to  Connecticut 
in  its  attitude  toward  political  questions  than  it  does  to 
Boston  and  the  other  commercial  coast  towns?  The 
reason  is  not  hard  to  find  when  one  has,  for  instance, 
traced  the  settlers  of  Berkshire  County  in  Massachusetts 
to  their  first  homes  in  Norwich,  or  Hartford,  or  Weth- 
ersfield  in  Connecticut.  Going  farther  afield,  one  works 
back  from  the  distinctly  New  England  forces  which  went 
to  the  building  of  Newark  in  New  Jersey,  or  of  South- 
ampton on  Long  Island,  to  these  same  northeastern  col- 
onies which  furnished  the  first  freemen  to  both.  And 
far  away  upon  the  shore  of  Mobile  Bay,  or  at  Natchez, 
or  at  Whitman  College  on  the  Pacific  slope,  when  there 


10       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

is  found  a  Comstock,  or  a  Carman,  or  a  Denton,  one 
needs  only  to  go  back  to  Connecticut,  or  to  Massachu- 
setts, or  to  their  neighbors,  to  discover  the  birthplace 
of  the  bearer  of  the  name.  Is  it  by  chance  that  the 
Michigan  town-meeting  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to 
that  of  Massachusetts  ?  Is  it  a  superficial  catchword  that 
denominates  Western  Reserve  University  a  "younger 
Yale  "  ?  Why  should  a  town  in  the  Willamette  valley 
of  Washington  have  white  houses  with  green  blinds  set 
gable-end  to  the  street  around  a  public  square?  Is  it  by 
accident  that  there  should  be  found  in  southern  Califor- 
nia an  intangible  but  distinct  New  England  individual- 
ism and  hospitality  grown  less  reserved  under  a  tropical 
sun  ?  If  we  find  New  England  civilization,  changed  yet 
recognizable,  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  Pacific, 
there  must  be  found  an  explanation  of  it  in  a  study  of 
the  spread  of  settlement  and  institution  outward  from 
the  first  straggling  villages  about  Massachusetts  Bay, — 
in  a  history  of  the  march  of  the  pioneer  from  Plymouth 
to  the  Columbia  River. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER 

The  earliest  settlement  in  New  England  embodied  many 
of  the  features  which  characterized  later  enterprises  of 
the  same  sort.  In  the  first  place,  the  very  name  of  the 
settlement  New  Plymouth  was  reminiscent  of  that  Eng- 
lish port  from  which  the  Mayflower  had  set  sail  for  the 
New  World.  One  has  but  to  place  the  maps  of  Eng- 
land and  New  England  side  by  side  to  find  many  such 
illustrations  of  the  effort  on  the  part  of  early  settlers 
to  perpetuate  in  a  new  country  the  local  names  of  their 
former  homes.  Moreover,  Plymouth  in  New  England 
was  founded  by  transplanting  part  of  a  church  —  deacon 
and  members  —  from  Ley  den  (which  had  been  but  a  tem- 
porary home)  to  America.  So  closely  were  church  and 
state  allied  in  the  minds  of  these  emigrants  in  search  of 
religious  independence,  that  membership  in  the  one  was 
identical  with  membership  in  the  other.  Before  they 
landed  to  begin  their  town,  the  settlers  drew  up,  in  the 
cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  a  compact  which  all  the  men 
signed,  whereby  a  ^^ civil  body  politic"  was  formed, 
under  whose  crude  constitution  laws  to  regulate  local 
concerns  might  be  made.  At  the  same  time,  however, 
loyalty  to  the  king  and  dependence  upon  him  in  larger 
concerns  were  clearly  set  forth.  Deacon  John  Carver  was 
chosen  governor  by  popular  vote  of  the  "  freemen  "  (as 
the  signers  of  the  compact  were  called),  and  with  Car- 


12  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

ver  was  associated  one  assistant.  As  has  been  said,  church 
and  state  were  closely  united,  and  the  town  government 
managed  not  only  the  business,  for  example,  of  admit- 
ting new  freemen,  but  such  matters  as  regular  church 
attendance  as  well.  About  the  church  centred  much  of 
the  life  of  Plymouth,  and  the  records  of  parish  affairs  are 
in  outline,  at  least,  a  history  of  the  town  itself.  From 
the  first  days  of  the  settlement  care  was  taken  that  the 
education  of  children  should  not  be  neglected.  Where 
the  sermon  occupied  so  large  a  portion  of  the  service 
and  was  the  medium  through  which  theology  was  taught 
to  old  and  young,  an  educated  people  was  a  necessity. 
Moreover,  one  outcome  of  the  Protestant  revolt  all  over 
Europe  had  been  to  force  dissenters  to  defend  the  indi- 
vidualistic tendencies  of  their  creed,  and  be  prepared  to 
argue  out  to  their  conclusion  independent  views  upon 
religion.  Thus  education  became  a  first  consideration, 
and  Governor  Bradford  noted  in  1624  that,  although 
families  taught  their  own  children  and  there  was  as  yet 
no  common  school,  it  was  not  because  the  need  of  edu- 
cation was  not  realized. 

Though  accident  had  brought  the  emigrants  of  1620 
to  the  shores  of  Massachusetts,  the  deserted  cornfields 
and  abundance  of  running  water  which  they  found  un- 
doubtedly had  weight  in  determining  where  the  site  for 
the  infant  settlement  should  be.  Huddled  close  to  the 
sea  the  little  town  grew  up,  with  its  cluster  of  houses 
and  its  church,  while  round  about  it,  running  back  to- 
ward the  interior,  lay  the  farming  lands.  The  plan  to 
hold  these  tracts  in  common  was  given  up  shortly ;  in 
1624  to  each  freeman  was  assigned  one  acre  as  a  per- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER       13 

manent  holding,  and  three  years  later  twenty  acres  were 
allotted  to  each.  By  this  time  a  number  of  new  names 
appear  on  the  records,  for  thirty-five  emigrants  had  ar- 
rived in  the  Fortune  in  1621,  and  about  sixty  in  the 
Anne  in  1623.  Originally  supporting  themselves  by 
agriculture  and  fishing,  the  pioneers  soon  found  trading 
with  the  Indians  a  profitable  addition  to  these  employ- 
ments, and  in  1627  determined  to  erect  a  fur-trading 
station  on  the  Kennebec  River  in  what  is  now  the  state 
of  Maine.  Plymouth  attempted  few  such  enterprises, 
however,  and  the  expansion  of  the  settlement  continued 
to  be  restricted  to  a  comparatively  small  and  compact 
district  about  the  original  town.  This  process  of  expan- 
sion may  be  well  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Scituate,  where 
some  emigrants,  newly  arrived  from  Kent,  in  England, 
made  their  home  in  1630.  These  newcomers  voted  in 
Plymouth,  and  there  they  went  to  church.  They  com- 
plained six  years  later,  when  the  number  of  freemen  was 
sixteen,  that  they  were  too  crowded,  and  that  their  lands 
were  ^^  stony  and  hard  to  be  subdued."  Even  the  salt- 
marshes  and  good  pasture-lands  which  had  first  attracted 
home-seekers  seemed  to  them  inadequate,  and  they  pe- 
titioned to  be  allowed  either  a  larger  grant  of  land, 
or  permission  to  remove  to  Marshfield.  The  former 
plan  was  adopted,  and  shortly  Scituate  was  incorporated 
as  a  separate  town,  with  its  own  independent  church. 
The  settlers  in  Marshfield  and  in  Duxbury  found  the 
Plymouth  church  inconveniently  far  away,  and  in  1632 
formed  separate  organizations.  A  little  later  they,  like 
Scituate,  were  incorporated  separately,  though  all  three 
were  members  of  Plymouth  Colony. 


U       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

While  this  sort  of  expansion  was  taking  place,  other 
small  towns,  independent  of  Plymouth  in  their  origin, 
had  obtained  a  foothold  up  and  down  the  shore.  Hull, 
Weymouth,  Braintree,  Quincy,  Salem,  Lynn,^  and  Mar- 
blehead  had  all  been  founded  in  1629,  their  inhabitants 
engaged  in  farming  and  fishing.  The  sites  of  these  towns 
were  selected  because  of  good  water  or  reasonably  fer- 
tile soil,  but  so  small  were  they  for  several  years,  that 
the  establishment  of  churches  came  only  after  their  suc- 
cess was  assured.  The  same  condition  is  illustrated  in 
the  early  New  Hampshire  towns,  —  Strawberry  Bank 
(the  Portsmouth  of  a  later  time).  Oyster  Kiver  (Durham), 
and  Dover,  all  of  which  were  in  1623  villages  scattered 
along  the  shores,  with  a  few  fishermen  and  farmers  in 
each. 

Still  farther  to  the  east  there  were  planted  before 
1630  the  trading-post  of  Plymouth  Colony  on  the 
Kennebec,  Cape  Porpoise,  Piscataqua,  Damariscotta, 
and  a  trading-post  at  Pemaquid,  around  which  grew  up 
gradually  a  settlement  that  after  the  granting  of  a 
patent  in  1630  became  a  flourishing  town.  Sagadahoc 
made  a  feeble  beginning  in  1623,  while  Sheepscot 
grew  in  seven  years  to  a  population  of  fifty  families. 
Across  the  river  from  the  New  Hampshire  towns  of 
Dover  and  Strawberry  Bank  lay  the  villages  of  South 
Berwick  and  York ;  Saco  and  Portland  came  into  ex- 
istence, and  farther  on  St.  George  was  planted. 

The  New  England  coast  in  1629  was,  then,  dotted 

*  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  location  of  the  English  towns  represented 
in  some  of  these  homes.  From  the  eastern  counties  of  Norfolk  and  Essex 
come  Lynn  and  Braintree.  Weymouth  is  in  Dorsetshire,  Hull  in  York- 
shire. 


EHCftft.,    SOSTOM, 


OF    THF 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER       15 

here  and  there  with  little  fishing  and  farming  villages ;  * 
the  only  settlement  of  any  size  was  Plymouth,  with  its 
outlying  farms  and  little  towns  split  off  from  the  older 
one.  But  in  that  year  began  the  great  migration  from 
England  to  America  due  to  the  acute  discontent  engen- 
dered by  the  policy,  political  and  ecclesiastical,  of  the 
second  Stuart  king.  The  vanguard  consisted  of  three 
hundred  and  eighty  emigrants,  who  arrived  in  Salem 
and  Lynn  under  the  leadership  of  John  Endicott,  the 
whole  enterprise  based  upon  the  charter  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Company.  This  company  had  organized 
as  a  trading  corporation  under  a  patent  of  Charles  I, 
which  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  mercantile 
charters  of  that  day,  such  as  the  one  granted  to  the 
East  India  Company.  By  the  terms  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Company's  charter,  the  members  of  that  "body 
corporate  and  politique  "  were  to  elect  annually  a  gov- 
ernor, a  deputy-governor,  and  eighteen  assistants,  who 
were  to  meet  at  least  once  a  month  in  a  court  to  regu- 
late colonial  affairs,  and  with  all  the  freemen  were  to 
meet  four  times  a  year  in  a  general  court  to  admit  free- 
men and  make  laws  for  the  regulation  of  civil  and 
religious  matters.  Once  a  year  this  General  Court  elected 
officers  for  the  next  year.  It  was  in  accordance  with 
such  terms  that  the  Endicott  Company  arrived.  The 
next  year  no  less  than  one  thousand  people  came  to  the 
shores  of  Massachusetts,  and  began  the  towns  of  Boston, 
Roxbury,  Watertown,  Medf ord,  and  Dorchester,  besides 
contributing  new  settlers  to  Lynn  and  Salem.    From 

^  See  map  opposite  this  page.    All  the  settlements  made  to  1629  are 
plotted  on  the  map,  although  their  names  are  not  inserted. 


16  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

that  year  dates  the  rapid  growth  and  prosperity  of  the 
Massachusetts  settlements,  which,  beginning  as  had  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  with  little  hamlets  huddled  close  to 
the  sea,  soon  found  their  farming-lands  too  small  for 
the  needs  of  an  increasing  population  which  made  agri- 
culture the  chief  means  of  Hvelihood.  To  meet  the 
demand  for  larger  fields  and  pastures,  settlement  was 
begun  in  Newtowne  (the  Cambridge  of  our  day)  in  1631. 
When  a  company  arrived  in  1635  from  Hingham  in 
England,  bringing  their  minister  with  them,  the  new- 
comers made  their  home  a  new  Hingham,  attracted  by  the 
heavy  timber  with  which  the  district  was  well  supplied. 
In  the  same  year  families  moved  to  Ipswich  and  Glou- 
cester, thus  adding  to  the  number  of  towns  north  of 
Boston.  Ipswich  offered  advantages  in  facilities  for 
farming,  fishing,  and  pasturage,  and  filled  up  so  rapidly 
that  four  years  later  the  town  was  considered  too  thickly 
populated,  and  families  from  Ipswich,  together  with  new- 
comers from  England,  —  forty  families  in  all,  —  mi- 
grated as  a  church,  taking  their  minister  with  them,  to 
Newbury.  Gloucester,  on  the  other  hand,  had  only  here 
and  there  a  bit  of  arable  land,  and  had  once  before  been 
abandoned  by  the  few  fishermen  who  had  tried  to  make 
homes  there.  It  is  indicative  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
settlements  up  and  down  the  coast  that  so  undesirable 
a  site  should  now  be  chosen ;  it  is  also  significant  that 
out  of  eighty-two  persons  named  as  proprietors  of  the 
soil  between  1633  and  1650,  two  thirds  ultimately 
migrated  to  newer  towns  to  try  their  luck  under  more 
favorable  conditions. 

One  other  illustration  will  show  the  mode  of  expan- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      17 

sion  to  1635.  Brookline  (called  Muddy  River)  was 
taken  up  as  an  outland  for  Boston  and  Cambridge, 
since  the  tract  abounded  in  good  soil,  well-grown  tim- 
ber, and  large  tracts  of  marsh  land  and  meadow/  Here 
the  cattle  were  pastured  during  the  summer,  the  farmers 
bringing  them  into  the  older  towns  after  harvest,  and 
making  no  permanent  settlement  until  the  end  of  the 
decade.  Upon  the  whole,  then,  the  first  fifteen  years  of 
New  England  settlement  show  hamlets  built  up  along 
the  coast,  with  the  gradual  extension  of  farming-lands 
into  the  interior,  which  lands  later  became  the  sites  for 
new  villages. 

Each  of  the  older  towns  had  its  own  church,  and  about 
this  church  centred  the  social  and  religious  life  of  the  com- 
munity. Church  members  only  were  allowed  to  be  free- 
men and  take  part  in  legislation,  so  closely  was  church 
allied  with  state  in  the  minds  of  the  Puritans.  Each  town, 
moreover,  had  its  own  ''  common,"  and  the  grouping  of 
the  houses  to  face  this  plot  of  ground,  with  the  farming- 
lands  completely  surrounding  the  group,  was  already  a 
marked  characteristic  of  the  New  England  settlement. 

The  planting  of  Concord  illustrates  a  new  phase  of 
expansion  from  the  coast  toward  the  interior.  As  has 
been  said,  the  new  settlements  up  to  1635  had  been 
pushed  back  toward  the  interior  only  as  extensions  of 
coast  towns.  In  that  year,  however,  the  General  Court 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  having  made  a  definite 
grant  of  a  tract  six  miles  square  to  twelve  or  fifteen 
grantees,  these  men  and  their  families  founded  the  town 
of  Concord,  the  first  inland  settlement  in  New  England. 
^  Rev.  John  Pierce,  "  Brookline,"  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.f  2d  ser.,  ii,  141. 


18  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

That  the  General  Court  recognized  the  hardships  likely  to 
be  the  lot  of  these  frontiersmen,  as  well  as  the  desirability 
of  such  an  outpost,  seems  probable  from  the  fact  that  three 
years'  exemption  from  taxes  was  a  feature  of  the  grant, 
as  came  to  be  the  case  oftentimes  in  all  the  colonies. 

The  break  in  the  frontier  line  having  once  been 
made,  pioneering  in  the  wilderness  became  general.  The 
Plymouth  Colony  had  in  1633  erected  a  trading-post  on 
the  Connecticut  Kiver,  through  the  efforts  of  William 
Holmes,  a  representative  of  the  "Plymouth  Trading 
Company."  John  Oldham,  of  the  same  Company,  had 
made  expeditions  up  and  down  the  river  from  the  trad- 
ing-post, and  had  brought  back  glowing  reports  of  the 
rich  intervale  lands  in  the  Connecticut  valley.  When 
certain  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  coast  towns,  chafing 
under  what  seemed  to  them  the  narrowness  of  the 
Winthr op-Cotton  administration  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
determined  to  migrate  for  a  second  time,  it  was  very 
natural  that  the  vicinity  of  the  Plymouth  trading-post 
should  be  chosen  as  their  goal.  A  few  adventurous  men 
had  gone  in  1634  as  a  vanguard,  making  their  way  by 
water,  and  had  built  huts  upon  the  site  of  Wethersfield, 
in  which  they  managed  to  live  through  the  winter.  The 
Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  pastor  of  the  Newtowne  (Cam- 
bridge) church,  argued  that  permission  to  remove  be 
given  his  congregation,  on  the  ground  that  their  scanty 
lands  were  too  cramped  for  the  number  of  cattle  they 
kept,  and  also  prevented  their  friends  in  England  from 
joining  them.  He  urged  the  fertility  of  the  soil  upon  the 
Connecticut  as  a  great  inducement  for  removal,  allegjing 
also  that  new  settlements  would  effectually  shut  out  the 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      19 

Dutch ;  and  added  that  "  the  minds  of  his  people  were 
strongly  inclined  to  plant  themselves  there."  After  a 
long  and  heated  debate,  leave  was  given  to  the  malcon- 
tents to  depart,  and  emigration  began,  first  to  Wethers- 
field,  then  to  Windsor,  and  finally  to  Hartford,  the 
pioneers  calling  the  towns  (until  1637)  Watertown, 
Dorchester,  and  Newtowne  from  their  homes  on  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  The  pioneers  of  Windsor,  by  purchasing 
their  right  of  settlement  from  the  old  Plymouth  Com- 
pany in  England  and  from  the  Indians,  acquired  the 
clear  title,  which  was  one  of  the  dearest  possessions  of 
the  New  England  farmer  of  that  day,  as  it  is  of  his 
descendants.  One  hundred  in  number,  they  made  the 
overland  journey  of  fourteen  days ;  through  swamp  and 
forest,  following  Indian  trails,  they  moved  as  an  organ- 
ized church,  taking  their  two  reluctant  ministers  with 
them.^  The  second  company,  bound  for  Wethersfield, 
went  in  all  probability  by  water  from  Boston,  perhaps  y 
arriving  before  their  companions  who  were  bound  for 
Windsor.^  The  third  colony,  under  the  leadership  of  the 

*  See  Dr.  H.  R.  Stiles,  Ancient  Windsor  (ed.  of  1859),  17,  where  he  says 
that  many  of  the  Dorchester  people  were  engaged  in  the  fur  business,  and 
that  the  furs  which  Hall  and  Oldham  had  brought  to  Boston  in  1633  made 
the  discontented  much  more  eager  because  of  the  opportunities  the  fur- 
trade  offered. 

Stiles  is  sure  these  first  settlers  went  along  the  north  border  of  Pom- 
fret  on  their  way  from  Boston  to  the  Connecticut.  See  Ancient  Windsor, 
footnote  on  p.  26.  Also  Bowen,  Woodstock,  13.  Also  Benjamin  Trumbull, 
History  of  Connecticut  (ed.  of  1818),  i,  64-66,  who  says  that  the  ministers 
had  to  move  because  their  whole  church  and  congregation  had  left  for 
Connecticut. 

*  Stiles,  Ancient  Windsor^  28.  Also  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  i,  59,  60. 
Trumbull  accounts  for  the  future  litigious  character  of  the  Wethersfield 
people  thus  :  "  The  brethren  of  the  church  at  Wethersfield  removed  with- 


20       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Rev.  Mr.  Hooker,  went  also  as  an  organized  church. 
They,  like  the  Windsor  pioneers,  about  one  hundred 
strong,  driving  their  one  hundred  and  sixty  head  of  cat- 
tle before  them,  made  their  way  overland  for  a  fort- 
night, from  Massachusetts  Bay  to  Hartford.^ 

Although  they  were  still  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
Massachusetts  (for  it  was  only  on  that  condition  that 
they  were  allowed  to  go),  the  idea  of  local  self-govern- 
ment was  too  firmly  implanted  for  these  Connecticut 
pioneers  to  give  up  the  idea  of  courts  of  their  own.  Two 
men  were  elected  from  each  of  the  towns  for  the  trans- 
action of  ordinary  business,  but  for  extraordinary  occa- 
sions, such  as  deciding  upon  peace  and  war,  and  mak- 
ing Indian  treaties,  they  were  joined  by  three  others  from 
each  town,  thus  forming  so-called  committees.^  For  two 
years  the  freemen  had  but  little  voice  in  making  the 
laws,  save  as  they  acted  through  their  representatives. 
As  in  Massachusetts,  church  and  state  were  closely 
united,  the  members  of  the  one  being  the  freemen  of 
the  other. 

out  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Phillips  ;  and,  having  no  settled  minister 
at  first,  fell  into  unhappy  contentions  and  animosities.  These  continued 
for  a  number  of  years,  and  divided  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  as  well  as 
the  brethren  of  the  church.  They  were  the  means  of  scattering  the  inhab- 
itants, and  of  the  formation  of  new  settlements  and  churches  in  other 
places."  Ibid.,  i,  120. 

1  One  often  wonders  what  became  of  the  lands  vacated  by  emigrants 
to  newer  towns.  The  lands  which  the  Hartford  settlers  had  left  vacant  by 
their  removal  were  purchased  by  the  congregation  of  Mr.  Thomas  Shep- 
ard,  Mr.  Hooker's  successor  in  Cambridge,  who  had  come  with  his  people 
from  England  in  1634.  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  i,  65. 

'  Note  the  difference  between  this  arrangement  and  that  of  Plymouth, 
where  the  freemen  allowed  only  advisory  powers  to  their  representatives 
till  the  towns  became  four  or  five  in  number. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      21 

The  same  year  that  the  Massachusetts  people  moved 
to  Connecticut  saw  the  begmnings  of  a  military  post  at 
Saybrook  under  the  guidance  of  John  Winthrop,  Jr., 
son  of  the  Governor  of  the  Bay  Colony ;  thus  towns  to 
the  number  of  four  were  scattered  along  the  river  before 
1636,  when  the  reports  of  John  Oldham,  who  seems  to 
have  been  of  an  adventurous  spirit,  and  had  traveled  far- 
ther up  the  Connecticut  than  any  other  white  man,  in- 
duced a  company  to  remove  to  what  is  now  Springfield. 
With  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent men  of  the  colony,  Wil- 
liam Pynchon,  as  their  chief 
man  of  affairs,  a  number  of 
families  from  Koxbury,  Mas- 
sachusetts, took  leave  of  their 
friends  on  the  coast,  to  begin 
a  new  home  far  out  in  the 
wilderness/  The  rich  inter- 
vale land  offered  great  oppor- 
tunities for  raising  farm  pro- 
ducts, the  Connecticut  River 
afforded  transportation  facili- 
ties, and  the  towns  farther  down  the  river  were  near 
enough  to  furnish  some  protection  in  case  of  Indian 
attacks.  To  Pynchon  himself  the  beaver-trade  was  an 
alluring  prospect,  and  from  the  first  he  engaged  in  it  to 

^  When  John  Cable  left  Springfield,  in  1641,  he  sold  his  house  and  lands 
to  the  town  for  the  sum  of  £40,  to  be  paid  in  three  installments,  —  in 
money  if  possible,  if  not  in  money,  then  in  goods,  to  be  agreed  upon  by 
Cable  and  the  towns-people.  The  next  year  the  town  sold  this  property 
to  one  Thomas  Cooper  for  £25.  See  First  Century  of  Springfield^  i,  163- 
155. 


SETTLEMENTS  ON  THE  CONNECTI- 
CUT   RIVER,  1637. 


22       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

his  great  profit.  A  significant  feature  of  the  founding 
of  Springfield  was  the  signing  of  a  compact  by  the  set- 
tlers, after  the  manner  of  the  Plymouth  pioneers.  By 
the  first  resolution  they  expressed  their  intention  of 
providing  themselves  with  a  minister  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble ;  by  the  second,  they  limited  the  number  of  families 
who  should  be  admitted  to  the  town  to  forty,  with  the 
privilege  of  enlarging  it  to  fifty  if  they  chose.^ 

South  of  Plymouth  Colony,  a  settlement  was  begun 
in  Khode  Island  in  1634  at  Cumberland,  and  two  years 
later  Roger  Williams,  with  a  company  of  friends  from 
Salem,  began  his  town  of  Providence.  Finding  himself 
out  of  harmony  with  the  "  close  corporation  "  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  he  purchased  lands  of  the  Indians,  and, 
with  other  disaffected  persons,  established  a  new  home, 
where  religious  and  civil  peace  might  be  maintained 
without  interference  from  their  neighbors  on  the  north. 
New  emigrations  from  the  two  Massachusetts  colonies 
added  to  the  population,  until  in  1638,  two  years  after 
the  planting  of  the  new  settlement,  thirteen  heads  of 
families  shared  in  the  first  division  of  land.^  Thus  Rhode 
Island  seemed  an  asylum  for  malcontents  in  other  parts 

^  Each  settler  was  to  have  a  house-lot  on  the  west  side  of  the  main 
street,  eight  rods  wide  from  the  street  to  the  river  ;  the  same  width  iu 
meadow  in  front  of  his  house  ;  a  wood-lot  of  the  same  width;  and,  where 
practicable,  an  intervale  lot  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible opposite  his  house.  The  first  comers  were,  however,  young  unmarried 
men,  less  than  twenty  of  those  who  came  in  the  first  five  years  bringing 
families  with  them.  See  First  Century  of  Springfield^  i,  19.  The  first  town 
government  was  not  representative,  for  all  the  freemen  discussed  matters 
in  town  meeting  ;  only  in  1644  was  authority  delegated  to  a  board  of  se- 
lectmen. See  ibid.y  23. 

»  W.  R.  Staples,  Annals  of  Providence,  17-40. 


se^BPCA^ 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      23 

of  New  England,  as  all  New  England  seemed  to  be  for 
the  disaffected  in  England  itself. 

Although  the  Indians  had  never  been  very  desirable 
neighbors,  hostilities  did  not  break  out  until  1637.  At 
that  time  the  frontier  line  extended  in  ragged  fashion 
from  the  Kennebec  Kiver  to  the  mouth  of  the  Con- 
necticut.^ Inland,  there  were  five  outposts  on  the  Con- 
necticut Kiver.^  Springfield  lay  farthest  north,  while 
Concord  marked  the  farthest  extension  to  the  north- 
west, and  Taunton  (in  the  Plymouth  Colony)  with  the 
Rhode  Island  towns  was  comparatively  isolated  in  the 
south.  The  Indians  had  resented  what  was  to  them  the 
intrusion  of  the  white  settlers,  and  by  petty  annoyances 
visited  upon  immigrants  moving  overland  or  by  sea  had 
prepared  the  way  for  the  outbreak  of  1637.  Had  the 
Narragan setts  joined  the  Pequots,  the  infant  towns 
would  in  all  probability  have  been  wiped  out  of  existence ; 
but  Roger  Williams  managed  to  hold  his  Indian  neigh- 
bors in  check,  and  upon  the  Connecticut  settlers  fell 
the  brunt  of  the  strife.  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
responded  to  the  call  of  their  Connecticut  neighbors 
for  help,  and  a  little  intercolonial  army  fell  upon  the 
unprepared  Pequots,  administering  such  chastisement 
as  not.  only  exterminated  the  Pequots  themselves,  but 

*  See  map  opposite. 

2  The  population  of  the  four  Connecticut  towns  is  thus  estimated  by 
Trumbull:  "There  we^e,  at  the  close  of  this  year  [1636],  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men  in  the  three  towns  [Wethersfield,  Hartford,  and 
Windsor]  on  the  river,  and  there  were  twenty  men  in  the  garrison,  at 
the  entrance  of  it.  .  .  .  The  whole  consisted,  probably,  of  about  eight 
hundred  persons,  or  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  or  seventy  families."  See 
Connecticut,  i,  68. 


V 


24       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

freed  the  towns  from  further  danger  from  Indian  tribes 
for  forty  years.  Those  forty  years  gave  such  opportunity 
for  growth  in  the  number  and  strength  of  the  towns, 
and  for  their  extension  inland,  that,  although  they 
might  suffer  greatly  from  a  war,  no  extermination  of 
the  white  settlers  was  ever  again  imminent,  as  it  had 
been  in  1637. 

Besides  affording  peace  and  quiet  for  the  towns,  the 
Pequot  War  did  even  greater  service  in  bringing  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Connecticut  pioneers  the  fertile  lands 
to  the  east  and  west  of  their  own  towns.  As  a  direct 
result  of  the  march  of  the  army,  the  sites  of  New 
Haven  and  Fairfield  were  discovered,  and  the  settlement 
of  that  part  of  the  country  followed  immediately.  A  few 
settlers  began  New  Haven  in  1637;  in  1638  came  the 
Davenport  and  Eaton  Company,  which,  after  a  pre- 
liminary agreement  with  the  Indians  by  which  the 
latter  were  to  have  the  use  of  the  land  between  New 
Haven  and  Saybrook,  purchased  in  December  a  tract 
ten  by  thirteen  miles. ^  This  was  by  far  the  wealthiest 
company  that  came  in  early  days  to  New  England. 
The  original  settlers  of  1636  were  mostly  from  London, 
and  were  for  the  greater  part  merchants,  hence  they 
chose  a  place  which  would  afford  a  convenient  centre 
for  trading.^    Several  characteristics  of  the  early  New 

*  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  96-98, 99.  New  Haven  was  called  Quinnipiack 
until  1640.  The  first  purchase  included  East  Haven,  Woodbridge,  Che- 
shire, Hamden,  North  Haven,  Branford,  and  Wallingford,  besides  what 
is  now  New  Haven. 

'  By  1643  there  were  in  the  colony  122  planters,  414  persons  in  all. 
Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.y  134-137,  also  New  Haven  Col.  Rec,  1638-49, 
90fif. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      25 

England  settlers  stand  out  in  a  study  of  the  Davenport 
Company,  in  their  attitude  both  towards  England  and 
towards  the  older  Puritan  towns  on  Massachusetts  Bay. 
Charlestown  and  Newbury  both  made  large  offers  to  the 
Company  as  an  inducement  to  live  in  their  midst,  but 
the  newcomers  were  bent  upon  forming  no  entangling 
ties.  They  gave  out  that  they  were  afraid  of  a  general 
governor's  being  appointed  for  all  New  England,  and 
that  they  wished  to  be  "  more  out  of  the  way."^  It  seems 
quite  clear  that  the  leading  spirits  were  determined  to 
found  a  wholly  new  government,  which  should  be 
modeled  in  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  matters  entirely 
upon  their  own  ideas. 

Mr.  Whitfield's  company,  which  in  1639  settled  Guil- 
ford, came  mostly  from  Surrey  and  Kent  in  England, 
and  chose  land  as  nearly  like  that  of  their  former 
homes  as  they  could  find.  Country-bred,  and  farmers 
by  occupation,  with  scarcely  a  mechanic  among  them, 
the  arable  lands  about  Guilford  attracted  their  notice, 
and  purchases  were  made  for  all  the  inhabitants.  Every 
planter  of  the  original  forty,  after  paying  his  propor- 
tional part  of  the  general  expense  incurred  by  laying 
out  and  settling  the  plantation,  drew  a  lot  of  land  in 
proportion  to  the  amount  he  had  expended,  and  to  the 
number  in  his  family.  A  church  was  gathered  at  once, 
and  the  town's  history  began.  ^ 

^  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  i,  96. 

2  B.  C.  Steiner,  Guilford,  26-35.  Also  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  \,  107, 
108.  Steiner  thinks  the  church  was  gathered  in  1643  ;  Trumbull  says  it 
was  begun  with  the  town,  with  seven  leading  men  as  its  first  members. 
Henry  White  thinks  the  New  Haven,  Guilford,  and  Milford  people  had 
organized  in  England  as  they  intended  to  settle  in  Connecticut.  He  says: 


26  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

In  1639  the  first  town  was  planted  upon  the  Housa- 
tonic,  —  Milford.  Here  a  company  of  four  men  was 
sent  ahead  to  explore  and  make  purchases  for  the  plant- 
ers who  were  to  take  possession.  The  settlers  came  from 
the  counties  of  Essex  and  York  in  England,  with  a  few 
seasoned  frontiersmen  from  Wethersfield.  There  were 
probably  two  hundred  arrivals  in  the  first  year/  The 
spirit  of  unrest  which  had  led  already  to  the  settling  of 
just  such  towns  as  Milford  drew  twelve  of  its  original 
settlers  within  a  few  years  to  either  Southampton  or 
Easthampton,  Long  Island;  Newport,  Khode  Island; 
Fairfield,  GuiKord,  and  Branford.  Within  a  few  years 
all  these  towns  had  settlers  from  Milford  among  their  in- 
habitants. Another  town  where  different  elements  min- 
gled was  Stratford,  which  was  purchased  and  settled  in 
1639.  It  numbered  among  its  pioneers  one  family  from 
England,  several  from  Roxbury,  two  from  Concord, 
some  from  Boston,  others  from  Wethersfield,  and  one 
from  Milford.  Such  a  settlement  can  hardly  be  called 
an  offshoot  of  any  one  town;  it  is  significant  that  it 
afforded  a  home  to  families  which  for  one  reason  or  an- 

"  Three  of  these  plantations,  New  Haven,  Milford  and  Guilford,  were 
undoubtedly  the  result  of  a  .  .  .  united  emigration  and  of  a  contiguous 
settlement.  The  agricultural  portion  of  these  emigrants  came  mostly 
from  the  three  English  counties  of  Yorkshire,  Hertfordshire  and  Kent. 
It  is  not  an  improbable  conjecture  that  before  they  left  England  they 
were  arranged  by  these  affinities  into  three  companies  —  the  Yorkshire 
men^  for  the  most  part,  uniting  with  the  London  merchants  and  trades- 
men who  settled  New  Haven  —  the  Hertfordshire  men  forming  the  bulk 
of  the  company  which  settled  Milford — and  the  Kentishmen  going  in 
a  body  to  Guilford."  "The  New  Haven  Colony,"  in  Papers  of  the  N.  H. 
Hist.  Soc,  i,  2. 

*  Of  the  fifty-four  freemen,  forty-four  were  church  members,  and  ten 
were  not.  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.,  230,  231. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      27 

other  had  found  their  earlier  settlements  unsatisfactory, 
and  thought  to  better  their  condition  by  moving  out  to 
the  edge  of  civilization. 

After  1640  the  Connecticut  settlers  formed  smaller- 
villages  with  great  rapidity.  Hartford  people  moved 
across  the  river,  and  lived  where  formerly  they  had  had 
only  fields.  The  excellent  soil  of  Norwalk  had  drawn 
twenty  families  there  between  the  time  of  the  first  purchase 
and  the  year  1651.^  Wethersfield,  which  had  contributed 
settlers  to  Stratford,  saw  an  exodus  of  about  twenty  fam- 
ilies to  Stamford  because  of  a  church  quarrel,  one  of 
several  in  that  town  which  led  to  new  settlements.^  New 
Haven,  foreseeing  expansion  in  the  near  future,  had  in 
1638  purchased  the  site  of  the  future  Branf ord ;  the 
dissensions  of  the  Wethersfield  church  led  to  its  repur- 
chase in  1644  and  its  settlement  the  same  year  by  fam- 
ilies from  Wethersfield  and  from  Southampton,  Long 
Island.  So  strongly  individualistic  were  these  pioneers 
that  they  were  constantly  complaining  of  the  burden- 
some yoke  of  the  New  Haven  jurisdiction  under  which 
they  lived,  and  longed  to  be  absolutely  independent. 

John  Winthrop,  the  typical  frontiersman  who  had 
begun  Say  brook  and  a  plantation  on  Fisher's  Island, 
was  back  of  the  project  of  settling  New  London,  and 
thus  opening  up  what  was  known* as  the  "  Pequot 
Country."  Several  persons  came  in  1646,  but  although 
the  planters  were  actually  in  possession  of  lots,  no  grants 

1  The  purchase  was  made  in  1640.  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.f  389. 

2  Henry  White,  "The  New  Haven  Colony,"  in  Papers  of  the  N.  H.  Hist. 
Soc.f  i,  4.  Twenty-eight  men  went  to  Stamford  in  1641  with  their  fami- 
lies ;  in  1642  there  were  fifty-nine  pioneers  there.  See  Huntington,  Stam' 
ford,  18-26. 


28  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

were  recorded  until  1647.  In  the  next  year  the  settle- 
ment numbered  more  than  forty  families;  soon  after, 
three  more  came  from  Wethersfield  and  seven  from 
Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  the  latter  bringing  their  min- 
ister with  them/ 

While  new  towns  had  been  springing  up  along  the 
rivers  and  coast  of  Connecticut,  expansion  had  been 
going  on  rapidly  in  Massachusetts  in  much  the  same 
manner.  Church  quarrels  proved  an  important  factor  in 
planting  new  settlements ;  —  for  example,  the  nine  fam- 
ilies who  went  to  Sandwich  on  Cape  Cod  from  Lynn,^ 
and  the  minister  with  his  congregation  from  Scituate 
who  began  the  town  of  Barnstable.^  When  a  few  fam- 
ilies had  begun  homes,  they  were  usually  joined  by 
others  who  came  from  various  of  the  older  settlements. 
Moreover,  steady  immigration  from  England  continued, 
the  newcomers  having  unallotted  lands  given  them,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  company  of  sixty  who  came  from 
Yorkshire  in  England,  almost  all  of  them  weavers,  and 
were  given  the  tract  where  Rowley  now  stands.  Other 
immigrants  settled  Sudbury,  and  still  others,  who  came 
from  Salisbury  in  England,  kept  one  tradition  of  their 

*  These  are  not  all  the  towns  settled  by  this  time;  they  are  merely  in- 
stances of  the  nature  of  such  settlement.  Every  town  planted  before  1660 
is,  however,  included  in  the  map  of  settlement  for  that  year. 

2  Lynn  settlers  also  began  the  town  of  Yarmouth  and  the  village  which 
became  South  Reading. 

3  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1st  ser.,  iii,  15.  It  would  seem  that  church  quar- 
rels were  a  most  fruitful  source  of  new  towns  in  Massachusetts  as  in 
Connecticut.  Eastham  owed  its  beginnings  to  a  church  difficulty  in  Ply- 
mouth, by  which  forty-nine  persons  removed  to  begin  new  homes.  They 
scattered  over  the  territory  which  is  now  included  in  Wellfleet,  Orleans, 
and  Eastham,  the  three  towns  dating  from  1644  under  the  name  of  East- 
ham.  See  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1st  ser.,  viii,  165. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      29 

old  home  in  naming  their  new  abode  Salisbury.  It  is 
noted  of  each  of  these  towns  that  they  had  a  church  and 
a  minister  within  two  years  or  less. 

The  crowding  of  the  coast  towns  also  tended  to  push 
back  the  frontier.  Cambridge,  Charlestown,  and  Woburn 
all  asked  for  new  grants  and  received  them.^  But  so 
marked  had  become  the  tendency  for  the  pioneers  to 
scatter  their  farmhouses  that  as  early  as  1635  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  issued  an  order 
forbidding  the  building  of  any  dwelling-houses  more 
than  half  a  mile  from  the  "  meeting-house/'  to  insure 
greater  safety. 

So  rarely  was  a  site  chosen  by  pure  accident,  as  Ply- 
mouth had  been,  that  the  founding  of  Edgartown,  on 
Martha's  Vineyard,  seems  worthy  of  note.  Some  immi- 

1  Cutter,  "  Woburn,"  in  Middlesex  County  (D.  H.  Hurd,  ed.),  i,  343- 
345.  The  grant  of  Woburn  is  so  exactly  a  type  of  all  Massachusetts  town 
grants  of  that  period  that  it  ought  to  be  described  at  length.  Its  bounds 
were  fixed  by  the  General  Court,  four  miles  square,  the  grant  being  made 
to  seven  men  upon  condition  that  within  two  years  houses  be  erected  and 
the  settlement  of  the  town  under  way.  These  seven  men  were  to  grant 
lands  to  any  persons  who  wished  to  make  homes  upon  their  tract,  and  to 
admit  these  settlers  to  all  common  privileges  of  meadow  and  upland,  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  cattle  and  of  persons  in  the  family  who  could 
make  proper  use  of  the  land;  but  the  tracts  were  not  to  be  so  large  as  to 
preclude  other  later  comers  from  finding  farm-lands.  These  seven  men 
laid  out  the  streets  of  the  town  and  distributed  the  lands,  giving  those  who 
lived  nearest  the  church  a  smaller  quantity  about  their  houses  and  more 
at  a  distance;  the  poorest  having  a  meadow  lot  of  six  or  seven  acres,  and 
an  upland  lot  of  about  twenty-five.  No  more  than  sixty  families  were 
to  be  admitted  without  leave.  Lands  still  belonging  to  the  town  because 
unassigned  were  (after  the  English  custom)  held  in  common  by  all  the 
citizens.  Thus  there  was  obtainable  for  every  freeman  severalty  in  land 
through  his  home-lot,  and  the  sense  of  community  of  interest  through  the 
common  lands.  See  Johnson,  "Wonder-working  Providence,"  in  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  ColLf  1st  ser.,  vii,  38  £f. 


30  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

grants  bound  for  Virginia  were  driven  by  storms  to  this 
harbor,  and  because  they  were  nearly  out  of  provisions, 
there  they  decided  to  remain.  They  soon  formed  a 
church,  and  in  1642  were  living  comfortably  —  twelve 
families  in  all  —  in  their  new  homes,  maintaining  them- 
selves by  fishing  and  farming.  | 

That  the  search  for  good  land  was  a  most  potent  cause 
for  emigration  is  well  illustrated  in  the  history  of  Lan- 
caster, called  "Nashaway"  in  the  early  records,  and 
^'  Prescott "  in  1652.  The  productive  soil  and  proximity 
to  the  Nashua  River  made  the  tract  most  desirable,  even 
though  Sudbury  marsh  lay  like  a  barrier  between  it  and 
the  older  towns.  From  its  beginning  as  a  trading-post, 
"Nashaway"  was  never  wholly  deserted.  A  new  fea- 
ture of  pioneering  appears  here  in  1643-44,  when  the 
Nashaway  Company,  made  up  chiefly  of  Boston  and 
Watertown  men,  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  convert- 
ing the  marshes  into  a  mill  power.  This  system  of  pro- 
prietors who  might  or  might  not  be  permanent  residents 
of  their  grant  is  one  which  became  common ;  to  these 
proprietors  the  General  Court  made  the  grant,  which 
was  merely  a  preemption  right,  not  to  take  effect  until 
the  Indian  title  had  been  extinguished.  These  proprie- 
tors sold  tracts  to  settlers,  or  admitted  desirable  persons 
to  the  town  upon  certain  conditions.  The  plan  was  prob- 
ably not  a  speculative  one  at  first,  for  land  was  to  be  had 
almost  for  the  asking,  and  no  one  needed  to  buy  at  sec- 
ond hand  from  proprietors  when  one  might  get  a  grant 
at  first  hand  from  the  colony.  It  was  only  when  land 
was  in  greater  demand  because  the  most  profitable  por- 
tions had  been  taken  that  speculation  began. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      31 

Although  the  tendency  to  expansion  was  great  in 
most  quarters,  it  was  sometimes  difficult  to  induce  settlers 
to  go  out  to  frontier  towns.  Salisbury  had  parted  with 
a  few  families  between  1645  and  1648  to  begin  the  town 
of  Amesbury,  the  new  settlers  continuing  for  twenty 
years  to  support  and  attend  the  Salisbury  church.  In 
1655  eighteen  men  signed  an  agreement  as  to  town  gov- 
ernment ;  yet  the  population  grew  so  slowly  that  in  1659 
offers  of  gifts  of  land  to  the  oldest  sons  of  families  who 
would  remove  to  Amesbury  were  used  as  inducements 
to  new  settlers  to  fill  up  the  town.  In  1666,  when  the 
town  was  organized,  it  contained  only  thirty-six  freemen. 
The  history  of  Framingham  is  similar.  One  family 
moved  there  from  Sudbury  in  1645  or  1646 ;  a  second 
in  1647 ;  but  in  1662  it  was  still  spoken  of  as  a  "  tract 
of  waste  land  "  and  a  "  wilderness."  The  fact  that  it 
was  on  the  old  Connecticut  path  from  Cambridge  to 
Hartford  was  not  a  great  enough  inducement  to  help 
build  it  up ;  and  only  in  1675  was  it  possible  to  support 
a  church  for  its  inhabitants,  who  had  up  to  that  time 
gone  to  Sudbury  or  to  Marlborough  every  Sunday. 

New  Hampshire  grew  very  slowly.  Settlers  from 
England  had  made  their  homes  in  Rye  in  1635.  In 
1638  thirty-six  men,  under  the  leadership  of  Rev.  John 
Wheelwright,  withdrew  from  the  Boston  church  and 
founded  Exeter,  while  other  adherents  of  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son and  of  Wheelwright,  who  came  mostly  from  Lynn, 
settled  Hampton  the  same  year.^  Other  settlers  came  to 

1  For  Exeter,  see  Bell,  in  Hammond,  Town  Papers^  xi,  639.  Also  Dr. 
Samuel  Tenney,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Colly  1st  ser.,  iv,  87.  For  Hampton, 
then  called  Winnicumet,  see  Palfrey,  Hist,  of  New  Englandy  i,  615,  516 
(ed.  of  1882).  In  1639  there  were  sixty  families  here. 


32       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  latter  town  from  Newbury,  and  the  town  was  from 
the  first  a  cattle-raising  centre  of  considerable  import- 
ance. The  only  government  established  was  municipal, 
for  the  inhabitants  regarded  themselves  still  as  subject 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts.  The  Isles  of  Shoals 
proved  too  attractive  a  fishing-ground  for  their  isolation 
to  keep  settlers  away.  Before  1641  the  inhabitants  of 
Hog  Island  had  erected  a  meeting-house,  and  Gosport 
was  a  flourishing  little  village.  In  1661  there  were  forty 
families  on  the  eight  islands,  the  majority  of  whom 
lived  in  Gosport. 

It  was  necessary  for  all  these  towns  to  be  more  closely 
united  than  they  had  been,  and  in  1641  they  were  or- 
ganized into  four  governments,  —  Portsmouth,  Dover, 
Exeter,  and  Kittery  (in  Maine),  —  and  w^ere  joined  to 
Ipswich  and  Salem  for  purposes  of  jurisdiction.  In  1643 
the  three  first  named  and  Hampton  were  added  to  Salis- 
bury and  Haverhill,  to  form  the  new  county  of  Norfolk, 
Massachusetts,  each  retaining  its  own  organization  for 
local  purposes.^ 

The  history  of  Maine  settlements  is  scarcely  more 
than  a  rehearsal  of  names  and  dates,  for  the  records  of 
the  earlier  settlements  are  most  meagre,  and  one  gathers 
only  that  a  few  fishermen  and  traders  led  a  precarious 
existence  in  tiny  villages  along  the  coast.  A  few  settlers 
from  Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  began  the  town  of  Wells 
in  1643,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Rev.  John  Wheel- 
wright, who  had  found  Exeter  as  uncongenial  as  Boston 
and  Lynn  had  been,  and  had  quarreled  over  some  reK- 
gious  matters  with  a  portion  of  his  New  Hampshire  pa- 

1  Belknap,  Hist,  of  New  Hampshire  (ed.  of  1784),  i,  54-56,  100. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      33 

rishioners.  The  inhabitants  of  Wells  formed  themselves 
into  a  regular  proprietary  organization,  with  thirty-five 
proprietors,  and  were  in  a  few  years  made  a  town  of 
York  County  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts/ 
But  the  villages  in  Maine  continued  small,  and  their 
records  are  quite  uneventful. 

Rhode  Island,  too,  grew  but  slowly.  Portsmouth  was 
settled  in  1638  by  Anne  Hutchinson  and  her  adherents ; 
within  a  few  months  they  had  quarreled  among  them- 
selves, and  some,  under  the  leadership  of  William  Cod- 
dington,  withdrew  to  Newport,  These  two  settlements 
with  Providence  and  Warwick^  were  united  in  1644 
under  a  charteW^btained  through  the  efforts  of  Roger 
Williams.  But  Coddington,  with  a  faction  of  his  own, 
managed  to  obtain  a  separate  charter  for  Newport  and 
Portsmouth  in  1651,  and  a  feud  arose  which  lasted 
nearly  ten  years,  and  ended  by  the  union  of  all  under 
the  old  charter  of  1644.  From  the  beginning  of  her 
history  Rhode  Island  represented  excessive  individualism 
and  fanaticism,  and  the  story  of  her  early  history  is  one 
of  lack  of  harmony,  and  of  civil  and  religious  conten- 
tion. 

Before  1660,  then,  five  of  the  present  New  England 
states  had  towns  planted  within  their  limits,  and  the 
two  most  populous  ones,  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts, 
had  sent  bands  of  pioneers  up  and  down  the  coast,  and 
far  inland,  to  begin  new  settlements  in  the  wilderness. 
But  expansion  did  not  cease  at  the  borders  of  New  Eng- 

»  Williamson,  3Iaine,  i,  293,  351. 

2  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i,  11.  North  Kingstown  was  settled  in 
1658,  when  a  few  families  from  Boston  and  Portsmouth  moved  there. 


34       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

land ;  in  1640  the  first  English  settlement  was  made  on 
Long  Island,  at  Gravesend,  by  emigrants  from  Massa- 
chusetts. Five  years  later  their  town  records  were 
begun,  and  by  1656  the  population  was  perhaps  two 
hundred/  In  the  same  year  that  Gravesend  was  settled, 
forty  families  from  Lynn  moved  to  Southampton,  erecting 
their  church  the  following  year.  They  alleged  that  they 
removed  because  they  were  "  so  straitened  at  home," 
but  the  church  quarrels  which  had  led  three  parties  from 
the  same  town  to  Cape  Cod  since  1637  make  one  suspi- 
cious that  the  alleged  reason  was  not  the  real  one.  In 
1657  sixty-one  houses  were  occupied  in  the  settlement. 
Other  towns  were  founded  by  f orm^  inhabitants  of 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  until  in  1660  eleven 
distinct  villages  had  been  settled,  scattered  from  one 
end  of  the  island  to  the  other,  either  along  the  coast,  or 
on  smaller  bits  of  land,  like  Shelter  Island. 

Each  of  the  English  towns  on  Long  Island  was  at 
first  independent,  all  questions  being  determined  by 
majority  vote  in  town-meeting.  The  people  of  South- 
ampton entered  into  a  social  contract,  which  they  signed 
previous  to  their  settlement,  agreeing  to  be  bound  by 
the  will  of  the  majority,  and  to  support  the  magis- 
trates in  the  administration  of  the  laws  so  made.  The 
people  of  Southold  and  Easthampton  did  the  same ; 
but  the  latter  and  those  of  Southampton  sent  to  Con- 
necticut for  a  copy  of  the  laws  in  force  there,  and  either 
used  them  exactly,  or  made  others  similar  to  them.  By 
1662  all  the  Long  Island  towns  had  united  with  either 
New  Haven  or  Connecticut.  One  must  note,  also,  a  set- 

1  Thompson,  Long  Islandf  ii,  168-169,  175, 177. 


OF  TMF 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      35 

tlement  in  Westchester,  Westchester  County,  New 
York,  by  a  company  of  thirty-six  men  "from  New 
England,"  who  secured  their  grant  from  the  Dutch,  and 
whose  town  was  at  first  called  Eastdorp  by  their 
neighbors. 

In  1660  the  frontier  line  extended  along  the  coast, 
not  far  inland,  from  the  Penobscot  to  Manhattan  Island/ 
It  was  not  continuous,  as  a  glance  at  the  map  will  show, 
and  it  tended  to  follow  the  larger  rivers,  for  its  only 
extension  inland  was  caused  by  the  attraction  of  rich 
lands  along  the  banks,  and  by  the  transportation  facili- 
ties so  necessary  to  any  settlement.  The  fear  of  Indians 
kept  settlers  from  pushing  far  into  the  interior,  and  the 
same  danger  made  the  pioneers  plant  new  towns  next 
to  old  ones,  except  in  rare  cases.  Having  once  estab- 
lished themselves  in  an  outpost,  the  pioneer^  were  sub- 
ject to  some  restrictions  as  to  removal.  The  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  issued  an  order  on  August  12, 
1645,  that  since  Concord,  Sudbury,  and  Dedham  were 
inland  towns  but  thinly  peopled  and  consequently  ex- 
posed to  great  danger,  no  man  living  in  any  of  the 
three,  be  he  married  or  single,  should  move  to  another 
town  without  permission  of  a  magistrate  or  selectman, 
until  "  it  shall  please  God  to  settle  peace  again,  or  some 
other  way  of  safety  to  the  above  named  townes,  where- 
upon this  Cort,  or  the  council  of  the  comon  weale, 
shall  set  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  towne  at  their 
former  liberty."  When  the  march  inland  did  not  follow 
the  rivers,  it  proceeded  by  some  well-known  Indian 
trail  such  as  the  Pequot  path,  or  the  old  Connecticut 
^  See  map  opposite. 


36       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

path,  or  the  trail  to  Lancaster  and  to  Springfield/  Be- 
yond the  mainland  there  were  outposts  on  the  Isles  of 
Shoals,  New  Shoreham,  Nantucket,  and  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, besides  those  upon  Long  Island  and  its  coast 
islands. 

By  1660  the  New  England  colonies  had  taken  definite 
form,  and  presented  the  various  features  which  were  to 
mark  them  off  as  distinctly  different  organizations  from 
those  farther  to  the  west  and  south.  Certain  traits  were 
common  to  all;  in  other  ways  each  was  quite  distinct 
from  any  other. 

All  of  the  colonies  had  this  feature  in  common,  that 
they  were  settled  directly  because  of  the  desire  for 
religious  freedom.  It  was  but  natural,  therefore,  that 
their  community  life  should  grow  up  around  their  church; 
and  this  w^  find  to  be  the  case.  In  almost  every  town 
there  was  a  meeting-house  with  a  minister ;  around  this 
church  were  grouped  the  homes  of  the  settlers,  rude 
cabins  at  first,  gradually  replaced  by  more  substantial 
houses.^  The  pioneers  had,  as  has  been  shown  in  many 
cases,  come  directly  from  England  as  organized  churches 
—  minister,  deacons,  and  members — to  plant  new  homes 

*  The  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Railroad  follows  closely  the 
old  Pequot  path  from  Boston  to  Providence,  following  the  Sound  to  New 
York.  The  old  Connecticut  path  is  almost  exactly  the  line  of  the  railroad 
from  Providence  to  Hartford  through  Putnam  and  Willimantic  ;  while  the ' 
Boston  and  Albany  is  practically  everywhere  the  old  Indian  trail  from 
Boston  to  Springfield  through  Brookfield. 

^  These  town  houses  were  commonly  set  gable-end  to  the  street.  Out 
on  the  frontier,  the  log  cabin  was  the  unvarying  sign  of  a  new  settlement, 
as  it  was  much  later  in  the  West ;  but  in  the  coast  towns  there  were  to 
be  found  the  really  comfortable  houses  of  people  who  were  building  per- 
manent homes  for  themselves  and  their  children. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER       37 

across  the  ocean.  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker's  followers,  for 
example,  true  to  their  tradition,  moved  as  an  organized 
church  when  they  left  Massachusetts  for  a  second 
frontier  home  in  Connecticut.  Their  places  were  imme- 
diately taken  by  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard  and  his  congre- 
gation, who  took  over  the  lands  and  the  church  which 
the  Hooker  emigration  had  left  for  later  comers.  The 
spirit  which  had  animated  the  first  Puritans,  the  deter- 
mination to  found  a  Bible  commonwealth,  had  animated 
their  descendants ;  and  those  who  made  new  homes  too 
far  from  any  existing  parish  to  attend  its  meetings  on 
Sunday  either  took  their  minister  with  them,  or  sent 
back  for  one  as  soon  as  enough  families  to  support  a 
minister  had  built  houses  on  the  new  tract.  To  induce 
ministers  to  move  out  to  the  frontier,  it  was  a  very 
common  thing  for  the  proprietors  of  a  new  town  to  set 
apart  one  of  the  original  lots  for  the  first  minister,  and 
often  another  for  the  "  support  of  the  ministry,"  besides 
building  the  church  (and  frequently  a  parsonage  as  well) 
by  a  common  assessment. 

In  both  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  Bay  the  close 
union  of  church  and  state  was  a  marked  feature  of  the 
constitutional  development.  In  the  latter  only  church 
members  enjoyed  the  franchise ;  in  New  Haven  the 
same  rule  obtained.  In  Plymouth  and  Connecticut,  while 
there  was  no  law  on  the  subject,  the  franchise  was  in 
practice  really  about  as  limited  as  in  Massachusetts 
Bay.  The  freemen  in  the  town-meeting  made  regu- 
lations for  both  civil  and  religious  affairs ;  the  General 
Court,  made  up  of  representatives  of  the  towns,  admitted 
freemen,  granted  lands  to  settlers,  appointed  committees 


38       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

to  lay  out  new  plantations,  and  made  church  laws  as 
well.  The  whole  idea  was  that  of  a  close  union  of  tem- 
poral and  spiritual  affairs,  and  by  that  practice  the  life 
of  the  colonies  was  regulated.  In  1639  the  Connecticut 
General  Court  drew  up  a  written  constitution,  which 
really  formulated  Massachusetts  governmental  practice 
as  it  existed  at  that  time,  including  the  town  system 
which  Massachusetts  Bay  had  developed  in  accordance 
with  her  needs.  By  this  means  the  practice  in  the  two 
colonies  came  to  be  very  similar ;  but  Connecticut,  more 
conservative  than  her  neighbor,  retained  the  system 
unchanged  long  after  Massachusetts  had  superimposed 
a  county  system  for  judicial  purposes.  There  were, 
however,  in  the  two  colonies  the  town-meeting,  a  pri- 
mary assembly  of  all  the  freemen ;  and  the  representative 
General  Court  for  the  larger  concerns  of  all  the  towns. 
The  New  Hampshire  settlements,  as  well  as  some  of 
those  in  Maine,  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  each  one  retaining,  however,  its  own 
organization  for  local  concerns.  Rhode  Island,  as  has 
been  shown,  possessed  two  charters,  each  being  used 
for  a  portion  of  the  colony,  while  the  towns  maintained 
their  local  organization  also.  The  Long  Island  towns, 
as  we  have  seen,  while  preserving  the  New  England 
tradition  of  town-meetings,  united  with  one  of  the  two 
Connecticut  colonies,  and  sent  representatives  to  act  for 
them  in  the  General  Court. 

Besides  their  substantial  agreement  in  the  character  of 
their  governmental  and  religious  institutions,  we  find 
the  New  England  colonies,  largely  because  of  the  de- 
mands of  their  religious  creeds,  favoring  schools  and  the 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      39 

education  of  children  from  the  first.  Plymouth  had  for 
a  long  time  only  family  teaching ;  in  the  laws  of  1658 
advice  was  given  to  each  town  to  consider  the  matter  of 
getting  a  schoolmaster.  In  1677  the  General  Court 
ordered  that  in  each  town  of  fifty  families  or  upwards  a 
grammar  school  be  supported,  any  deficit  in  the  rate  to 
be  made  up  from  the  profits  of  the  Cape  fishing.  The 
Massachusetts  Bay  General  Court  passed  an  act  in  1649 
compelling  every  town  of  fifty  householders  to  appoint 
a  teacher  for  all  their  children  ;  and  further  requiring  a 
grammar  school  for  every  town  of  one  hundred  fami- 
lies or  more.  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  adopted  the 
same  system,  as  did  Plymouth  at  a  later  time.  In  higher 
education  Massachusetts  led  the  way,  when  in  1636 
Harvard  College  was  founded  as  a  missionary  enter- 
prise. Thus  from  the  first  the  foundations  of  educa- 
tion for  all  children  were  laid,  and  traditions  established, 
which  were  to  distinguish  the  Puritans'  descendants  for 
all  time. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

Out  of  a  wealth  of  material  for  the  study  of  New  England  history,  a  few 
books  have  been  conspicuously  helpful  in  the  preparation  of  this  work.  Of 
the  more  general  works,  Palfrey's  Compendious  History  of  New  England 
(4  vols.)  is  indispensable  as  far  as  it  goes  (to  1765),  but  has  to  be  cor- 
rected in  some  places  because  of  later  investigations  in  local  history.  John 
Winthrop's  History  of  New  England,  from  1630  to  1649  (Savage  edition), 
is  of  course  invaluable.  William  B.  Weeden's  Economic  and  Social  His- 
tory of  New  England,  1620  to  1789  (2  vols.),  contains  an  enormous  mass 
of  valuable  material,  which  is,  however,  badly  organized.  A  work  which 
was  never  carried  through  into  the  second  volume,  but  is  a  very  good  and 
convenient  compilation  for  the  settlement  of  Maine,  Vermont,  and  New 
Hampshire,  with  an  exceptionally  good  map,  is  Coolidge  and  Mansfield's 


40        THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

History  and  Description  of  New  England  (Boston,  1859)  ;  here  every  town 
in  the  three  states  has  its  short  history,  taken  sometimes  from  other  works, 
as  are  certain  whole  paragraphs  on  Vermont  towns  copied  verbatim  from 
Thompson's  Vermont.  John  Warner  Barber's  Historical  Collections  of 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  Historical  Collections  take  up  the  history  of 
every  town  in  these  two  states,  and  are  fairly  accurate.  The  books  must, 
like  Coolidge  and  Mansfield's  work,  be  corroborated  as  far  as  possible  by 
other  testimony.  Rhode  Island  is  the  only  one  of  the  New  England  States 
which  has  no  such  convenient  compilation.  For  early  New  England  insti- 
tutions, and  the  general  historical  background,  the  latest  and  best  work 
is  in  Professor  Edward  Channing's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i, 
which  bears  the  subtitle  The  Planting  of  a  Nation  in  the  New  World,  and 
vol.  ii,  A  Century  of  Colonial  History  (1660-1760). 

As  for  more  specialized  works  :  for  Massachusetts,  there  are  such  con- 
temporary works  as  William  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation 
(Deane  Edition),  Thomas  Prince's  Annals,  Alexander  Young's  Chronicles 
of  the  First  Planters  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  (1623  to  1636),  and 
Captain  Edward  Johnson's  Wonder-working  Providence  (W.  F.  Poole's 
ed.,  1867).  The  Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  con- 
tain a  mass  of  material,  with  such  contemporary  accounts  as  Josselyn's 
Accounts  of  Two  Voyages  to  New  England.  There  are  also  the  admirable  col- 
lections of  colonial  records  (for  the  colonies  of  New  Plymouth  and  Massa- 
chusetts Bay),  supplemented  by  the  laws  known  as  The  Acts  and  Resolves, 
Public  and  Private,  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  (15  vols.,  covering 
the  period  from  1692  to  1780),  which  need  no  comment.  There  is  a  good 
deal  of  material  on  settlement  in  Thomas  Hutchinson's  History  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 1628  to  1774  (3  vols.),  and  in  J.  S.  Barry's  History  of  Massachu- 
setts (3  vols.).  The  county  histories,  especially  those  compiled  by  D.  H. 
Hurd  and  S.  L.  Deyo,  necessarily  vary  in  value,  since  the  articles  are  by 
different  persons,  many  of  them  untrained  for  the  work,  and  the  books 
are  popular  in  character.  For  many  small  towns,  however,  these  compila- 
tions contain  all  the  material  at  present  available,  and  thus  they  serve 
their  purpose.  Local  histories,  such  as  Sylvester  Judd's  History  of  Hadley 
and  J.  G.  Holland's  History  of  Western  Massachusetts  (2  vols.,  1855),  are 
excellent,  and,  as  tested  by  other  material,  prove  accurate  ;  many  other 
local  works  are  worthless  save  for  such  portions  as  the  biographies  of  citi- 
zens. Works  commemorative  of  special  occasions,  such  as  Timothy  M. 
Cooley's  "  Historical  Discourse,"  in  TTie  Granville  Jubilee,  delivered  in 
Granville,  Massachusetts,  in  1845,  are  very  suggestive  for  the  emigration 
of  inhabitants  from  New  England  towns.  Centennial  celebrations  of  the 
founding  of  churches  can  usually  be  relied  upon  to  produce  useful  statis- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  AMERICAN  FRONTIER      41 

ties  in  the  same  way.^  For  a  study  of  population,  evidence  has  to  be  gath- 
ered from  poll  tax  lists,  lists  of  church  members,  etc.,  save  in  the  case  of 
such  a  later  compilation  as  Jesse  C  bickering's  Statistical  View  of  the  Pop- 
ulation of  Massachusetts  from  1765  to  ISJ^O  (Boston,  1846),  which  is  espe- 
cially suggestive  on  the  decades  from  1820  to  1840. 

For  Connecticut,  the  Public  Records  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut  (15 
vols.,  Hartford,  1850  to  1890)  and  the  Records  of  the  Colony  and  Planta- 
tion of  New  Haven  (2  vols.,  Hartford,  1857-58)  are  full  of  records  of 
settlement  and  institutions.  The  Connecticut  Historical  Society  Collections 
(11  vols.,  Hartford,  1860-1907)  are  indispensable,  as  are  the  Papers  (7 
vols..  New  Haven,  1865-1908)  issued  by  the  New  Haven  Colony  Histori- 
cal Society.  Benjamin  Trumbull's  Complete  History  of  Connecticut,  Civil 
and  Ecclesiastical  (2  vols.,  covering  the  period  1620-1764)  is  useful  and 
accurate.  There  are  many  excellent  local  histories,  among  which  are  Dr. 
C.  W.  Bowen's  Woodstock,  Miss  F.  M.  Caulkins's  History  of  New  London 
and  her  History  of  Norwich,  Rev.  A.  B.  Chapin's  Glastenhury  for  Two  Hun- 
dred Years,  and  Dr.  H.  R.  Stiles's  History  of  Ancient  Windsor,  Connecticut 
(new  edition  of  1891,  2  vols.,  is  best).  There  are  others  quite  as  good  as 
these.  The  Record  of  the  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundredth  Anniversary  of 
the  Founding  of  Yale  College  (1902),  and  Franklin  B.  Dexter's  Sketch  of 
Yale  University  (1897)  show  the  widespread  influence  of  the  Connecticut 
institution,  especially  in  the  West.  Dr.  B.  C.  Steiner's  History  of  Educa- 
tion in  Connecticut  gives  a  little  information  on  early  schools. 

The  Collections  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  (10  vols..  Provi- 
dence, 1827-1902)  are  not  so  good  as  the  similar  collections  for  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut.  There  are  sometimes  articles  useful  for  such 
purposes  as  this  study  affords  in  the  Publications  (8  vols.)  and  the  Proceed- 
ings (in  a  number  of  pamphlets,  1872-92, 1900-02)  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society.  Samuel  G.  Arnold's  History  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Is- 
land and  Providence  Plantations  (2  vols..  New  York,  1859-60)  is  still  the 
best  history  of  Rhode  Island.  Dr.  G.  W.  Greene's  Short  History  of  Rhode 
Island  contains  some  material  not  in  Arnold's  work.  In  local  history,  W. 
R.  Staples's  Annals  of  the  Town  of  Providence  (Providence,  1843)  is  valu- 
able. 

Maine  local  history  can  be  found,  as  has  been  noted  above,  in  Coolidge 
and  Mansfield  ;  in  the  Collections  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society  (1st  series, 
10  vols.,  1831-91  ;  2d  series,  11  vols.,  1865-1908;  and  a  3d  series,  2  vols., 

*  The  references  above  are  those  found  most  useful  for  the  text  of  this  study. 
Many  more  works  have  been  utilized  in  the  preparation  of  the  maps.  For  ex- 
ample, forty-two  local  histories  were  used  for  the  Massachusetts  maps,  besides 
the  twenty  or  more  used  for  the  text. 


42       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

1904-06)  ;  in  the  Collections  of  and  Proceedings  of  the  Maine  Historical 
Society  (2d  series,  10  vols.,  1890-99)  ;  in  James  Sullivan's  History  of  the 
District  of  Maine  (Boston,  1795)  ;  and  in  W.  D.  Williamson's  History  of  the 
State  of  Maine,  1602  to  1820  (2  vols.,  1832).  Governor  Sullivan  tries  to 
untangle  the  skein  of  overlapping  grants  as  a  lawyer  would  ;  Williamson's 
work  is  very  like  Trumbull's  Connecticut,  and  contains  much  material  not 
available  elsewhere.  William  Willis's  History  of  Portland,  from  1632  to 
1864  (2d  ed.,  1865)  is  a  good  piece  of  work,  as  is  James  W.  North's 
History  of  Augusta,  but  there  has  been  all  too  little  work  done  on  local 
history  in  Maine. 

The  standard  general  history  of  New  Hampshire  is  Jeremy  Belknap's 
History  of  New  Hampshire  (3  vols.),  which  can  be  supplemented  by  that 
of  George  Barstow  (in  1  vol.).  There  are  various  sets  of  documents  : 
Provincial  and  State  Papers,  in  many  volumes,  edited  by  Dr.  Nathaniel 
Bouton,  Isaac  W.  Hammond,  and  Albert  S.  Batcheller,  —  29  volumes  in 
all.  Since,  in  many  New  Hampshire  towns,  settlement  took  place  long 
before  incorporation,  the  collections  of  charters  in  the  set  given  above  are 
not  of  value  in  many  cases  for  such  a  study  ae  the  present  one.  The  local 
histories  are  few  in  number,  and  are  mostly  concerned  with  towns  settled 
at  a  later  date. 

For  Long  Island  in  this  period,  the  Historical  Collections  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  by  John  W.  Barber  and  Henry  Howe,  is  a  valuable  book,  to 
be  supplemented  by  Martha  Bockde  Flint's  Early  Long  Island  (New  York, 
1896)  ;  H.  G.  Spafford's  Gazetteer  of  the  Slate  of  New  York;  the  old  stand- 
ard work  of  B.  F.  Thompson,  The  History  of  Long  Island  (2d  ed.,  2  vols., 
New  York,  1843)  ;  also  Silas  Wood's  Sketch  of  the  First  Settlement  of  the 
Several  Towns  on  Long  Island  (3d  ed.),  Brooklyn,  1828.  Besides  these 
there  are  the  admirable  Records  of  the  Town  of  East  Hampton,  Long 
Island,  Suffolk  County,  New  York  (4  vols.),  covering  the  period  from  1639 
to  1849.  The  Collections  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  1st  series  (5 
vols.),  also  contain  a  little  material.  Daniel  Denton's  Brief  Description  of 
New  York,  printed  in  London  in  1670,  but  reprinted  in  1902,  is  valuable 
as  the  work  of  a  contemporary  writer.  Of  local  histories,  the  best  are 
George  R.  Howell's  Early  History  of  Southampton,  Long  Island,  and  the 
Rev.  Epher  Whitaker's  History  of  Southold,  Long  Island. 

For  Westchester  County,  there  is  a  good  work  in  two  volumes  by  Rob- 
ert Bolton,  Jr.,  History  of  the  County  of  Westchester, 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   INFLUENCE   OP   INDIAN   WARFARE   UPON   THE 
FRONTIER 

1660-1713 

The  history  of  the  frontier  from  1660  to  1713  was 

largely  determined  by  the  frequent  Indian  wars  during 
this  period.  The  rush  of  population  to  the  margin  of 
danger  would  have  been  enough  in  itself  to  account  for 
such  an  outbreak  as  that  instigated  by  King  Philip; 
but  when  with  this  normal  expansion  was  combined  the 
added  impetus  of  those  colonial  wars  which  made  up 
one  feature  of  the  European  struggles  of  the  same 
period,  it  was  little  wonder  that  the  Indians  took  advan- 
tage of  their  position  as  coveted  allies  to  pay  off  old 
scores.  In  order  to  understand  the  situation,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  relations  existing 
between  England  and  her  colonies  in  the  years  immedi- 
ately succeeding  the  accession  of  Charles  II. 

The  English  Restoration  of  1660  inaugurated  an  era 
of  conservatism  in  church  and  state.  The  troubled  years 
of  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  Protectorate  had  caused 
many  an  Englishman,  were  he  Royalist  or  Puritan,  to 
look  back  with  regret  upon  the  time  when  a  king  held 
the  reins  over  him.  Yet  when  Charles  II  and  his  ad- 
visers inaugurated  a  policy  strongly  suggestive  of  that 
adopted  by  Charles  I  in  the  early  years  of  his  reign,  it 
was  but  natural  that  many  should  resent  such  reaction- 


44  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

ary  measures,  and  that  emigration  should  set  in  toward 
the  colonies,  whose  development  had  been  going  on 
steadily  during  the  troublous  times  of  Cromwell.  The 
fact  that  the  colonies  had  been  left  so  largely  to  their  own 
devices  for  a  number  of  years  was  conducive  to  the  quiet 
growth  of  the  democratic  institutions  which  had  been 
evolved  out  of  an  innate  love  of  Hberty,  and  had  been 
fostered  and  developed  by  the  exigencies  of  life  in  the 
wilderness,  far  from  the  restraining  hand  of  the  English- 
men who  governed  the  mother  country.  To  these  col- 
onies, then,  came  many  Puritans  who  feared  a  regime  of 
absolutism  and  a  return  to  the  principles  of  Archbishop 
Laud,  along  with  other  emigrants  who  were  moved  by 
the  economic  and  social  causes  which  had  been  operative 
throughout  the  century.  The  acts  of  Parliament  bearing 
upon  commerce,  which  had  been  passed  under  Cromwell 
and  reenacted  and  enlarged  in  their  scope  after  the 
Restoration,  were  aimed  at  Dutch  shipping  at  the  same 
time  that  they  fostered  English  industries.  In  the 
impetus  these  acts  gave  to  the  English  carrying-trade 
the  colonies  were  to  share.  Thus  greater  opportunities 
opened  up  before  the  prospective  emigrant,  and  the 
population  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  increased  accord- 
ingly. Whatever  grievances  the  Indians  had  with  regard 
to  the  limitation  of  their  hunting-grounds  were  but 
aggravated  by  the  expansion  necessitated  by  the  arrival 
of  the  newcomers. 

The  laissez-faire  policy  of  Cromwell  and  his  advisers 
had  not,  however,  resulted  in  any  weakening  of  the 
relation  between  the  mother  country  and  her  colonies ; 
but  the  bonds  which  were  to  hold  them  together  seemed 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  45 

to  need  strengthening.  Soon  after  the  accession  of 
Charles,  new  charters  were  issued  to  several  colonies,  but 
the  conditions  already  in  existence  were  not  materially 
altered.  To  Connecticut  was  granted  the  document 
which  the  inhabitants  of  that  colony  regarded  as  the 
safeguard  of  their  liberties  until  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  was  secured  largely  through  the 
efforts  of  a  colonist  who  stood  high  in  favor  with 
certain  English  noblemen,  —  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  the 
founder  of  Saybrook,  of  the  Fisher's  Island  settlement, 
and  of  New  London.^  Its  terms  provided  for  a  governor, 
deputy-governor,  and  twelve  assistants,  to  be  elected 
annually  by  the  General  Court  and  the  Assembly.  The 
former  body  was  to  consist  of  not  more  than  two  repre- 
sentatives from  each  town  (elected  by  the  freemen), 
and  the  latter  to  be  made  up  of  the  governor,  deputy- 
governor,  and  at  least  six  assistants.  Twice  a  year 
these  organizations  were  to  meet  to  admit  freemen,  elect 
officers,  and  in  general  to  make  laws  regulating  the 
affairs  of  the  colony,  subject  only  to  the  condition  that 
they  should  not  be  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England. 
Thus  representative  government  was  given  the  Con- 
necticut people  with  an  extraordinary  degree  of  latitude ; 
the  town-meeting  was  left  as  it  had  grown  up,  and  the 
development  of  liberty  was  assured  to  the  colonists.  In 
this  charter,  New  Haven  was  joined  to  the  other  Con- 
necticut towns ;  but  it  was  some  time  before  the  settlers 
were  brought  under  its  jurisdiction. 

So  promptly  did  Rhode  Island  proclaim  the  accession 
of  Charles  II,  that  her  petition  for  a  charter  was  f avor- 

»  See  pp.  21  and  27. 


46       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

ably  regarded  at  once.  A  delay  in  issuing  the  document 
was  caused  by  the  indeterminate  boundaries  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  John  Win- 
throp's  grants,  so  that  it  was  not  until  1663  that  the 
charter  was  granted.  By  its  terms,  the  Rhode  Island 
towns  of  Providence,  Newport,  Portsmouth,  Warwick, 
and  Coventry  were  united  under  the  title  of  the  "  Rhode 
Island  and  Providence  Plantations,"  to  be  governed  by 
a  governor,  deputy-governor,  and  ten  assistants,  elected 
annually  by  the  representatives  of  the  various  towns. 
The  representatives  in  Rhode  Island  were  not  to  be  the 
same  in  number  for  each  town,  but  were  apportioned 
roughly  according  to  population,  —  six  for  Newport, 
four  for  Providence,  Portsmouth,  and  Warwick,  and  two 
for  every  other  town  settled  then  or  later.  The  organi- 
zation of  the  General  Court  and  of  the  Assembly  was 
like  that  in  Connecticut,  and  they  were  to  make  laws 
as  in  the  latter  colony,  subject  to  the  condition  that 
these  laws  be  not  repugnant  to  those  of  England.  In 
Rhode  Island,  then,  as  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts, 
representative  government  was  established,  while  the 
town-meeting  of  all  the  freemen  developed  beside  it. 
About  the  same  time  that  these  charters  were  issued, 
England  concluded  a  war  with  Holland.  By  the  terms 
of  the  peace,  carried  out  by  Colonel  Nicolls  in  August, 
1664,  the  Dutch  colony  of  New  Netherland  came  into 
the  possession  of  the  English, — a  fact  of  the  utmost 
importance  for  the  future  history  of  America.  In  the 
first  place,  the  fear  of  Dutch  encroachments  upon  New 
England  —  a  menace  since  1633,  at  least  —  was  thus 
ended ;  in  the  second  place,  the  coast  from  Virginia  to 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  47 

Maine  became  wholly  Englisli  by  the  removal  of  what 
was  then  the  only  rival  claimant  to  the  soil;  and  in  the 
third  place,  the  first  foreign  element  was  introduced 
into  the  English  population  of  the  colonies.  To  the  last- 
named  condition  may  be  ascribed  the  adaptations  such  as 
those  made  presently  in  the  laws  for  the  newly  acquired 
colony,  which  alone  could  make  the  assimilation  of  that 
element  possible.  Moreover,  the  Dutch  had  their  own 
institutions,  and  some  readjustment  was  obviously  neces- 
sary if  antagonisms  were  to  be  avoided.  The  acquisition 
of  New  Netherland  thus  introduced  problems  of  assimi- 
lation and  adaptation  which  had  not  presented  them- 
selves in  homogeneous  communities  like  New  England, 
but  which  were,  nevertheless,  prophetic  of  similar  ques- 
tions to  be  solved  at  later  times.  The  first  code  of  laws 
for  the  conquered  territory  was  proclaimed  in  1665,  and 
bore  the  title  of  "  The  Duke  of  York's  Laws."  These 
statutes  bear  a  striking  resemblance  in  many  ways  to 
those  in  force  in  Massachusetts ;  the  English  towns  and 
the  English  settlers  in  the  Dutch  towns  probably  aiding 
in  shaping  them  to  accord  with  what  was  then  colonial 
practice  for  New  England.  Town-meetings  had  from 
the  first  furnished  the  machinery  for  governing  the 
Long  Island  towns,  and  they  were  provided  for  in  the 
Duke's  Laws,  in  order  to  elect  a  constable  and  eight 
overseers  for  the  administration  of  local  concerns,  but 
with  more  power  than  was  given  the  New  England 
selectmen,  who  were  merely  executive  officers.  Over  sev- 
eral towns  was  superimposed,  for  judicial  purposes,  the 
riding,  which  later  became  the  county,  whose  chief  offi- 
cer was  the  sheriff.  In  1703  each  town  elected  a  county 


48       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

supervisor,  who  with  his  fellow  supervisors  formed  a 
county  board,  representing  all  the  towns,  and  standing 
between  the  town  and  the  General  Court  of  the  colony. 
Here,  then,  is  a  mixed  system  of  town  and  county  gov- 
ernment somewhat  different  from  the  New  England 
form,  yet  closely  allied  to  it  in  its  fundamental  features. 
The  Duke's  Laws  provided  one  feature,  however,  which 
differed  materially  from  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut 
practices ;  they  vested  much  more  power  in  the  hands 
of  a  governor  and  council  than  was  given  in  the  neigh- 
boring colonies,  leaving  the  people  little  voice  in  affairs 
which  concerned  anything  beyond  the  riding. 

Another  consequence  of  the  acquisition  of  New  Neth- 
erland  was  the  grant  made  by  the  Duke  of  York  to  his 
intimate  friends.  Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Car- 
teret, of  the  land  lying  between  the  Delaware  and  the 
Hudson.  The  name  New  Jersey,  given  to  the  tract,  was 
in  compliment  to  Carteret,  who  had  held  the  Island  of 
Jersey  during  the  troublous  days  of  the  Civil  War. 
There  were  "squatters"  already  on  the  soil,  and  for 
these  and  prospective  settlers  the  proprietors  drew  up  a 
plan  of  government  not  unlike  that  in  the  New  England 
colonies  under  the  charter  just  issued,  save  that  the 
right  to  annul  laws  lay  with  the  proprietors,  and  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  was  to  be  supplemented 
by  one  to  the  proprietors. 

From  1660  until  1675,  what  with  immigration  from 
England  and  the  natural  expansion  of  the  colonies,  set- 
tlement went  on  rapidly,  and  the  frontier  was  pushed 
farther  out  into  the  wilderness.  As  the  area  of  occupied 
soil   grew   larger,   the   size   of   the  Indians'   hunting- 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  49 

grounds  diminished,  and  therein  lay  perhaps  the  most 
potent  cause  of  the  conflict  between  the  two  races.  In 
order  to  show  how  great  havoc  could  be  wrought  it  is 
necessary  to  show  conditions  in  the  years  preceding  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities  in  1675. 

In  Massachusetts,  families  moved  from  the  older 
towns  into  the  outlying  districts,  which  were  still  near 
enough  to  be  included  in  the  older  parishes ;  —  such 
was  the  emigration  to  Merrimac  (for  two  centuries  a 
part  of  Amesbury),  and  to  East  Bridgewater  (a  parish  of 
Bridgewater).  Other  settlements  were  made  about  Ply- 
mouth and  on  Cape  Cod ;  a  church  quarrel  in  Barnstable 
furnished  the  pioneers  of  Falmouth,  fourteen  of  whom 
are  mentioned  in  the  allotment  of  lands  in  1661.  Not 
only  were  the  unoccupied  tracts  near  the  coast  taken 
up,  but  the  more  remote  districts  to  the  west  and  north 
of  the  colony  also.  It  was  a  bold  man  who  wished  to 
remove  to  Brookfield  in  those  days,  but  so  fertile  was 
the  soil  that  although  their  nearest  neighbors  were  miles 
away  in  Springfield,  Lancaster,  and  Sudbury,  six  or 
seven  families  were  in  the  settlement  in  1667.^  Mendon, 
too,  was  an  outpost;  begun  in  1660  by  people  from 
Brain  tree  and  Weymouth,  it  was  incorporated  seven 
years  later,  and  in  1675  had  a  population  of  thirty- 
eight  families.  Dunstable,  on  the  northern  border,  then 
included  Tyngsborough,  and  extended  a  little  way  into 
New  Hampshire,  —  a  distinctly  frontier  outpost.  In  the 
Connecticut  valley,  Samuel  Frary,  of  Medfield,  led  the 
way  for  the  Hinsdale  and  Plympton  families,  who  fol- 

^  Most  of  these  were  from  Ipswich.  In  1675  there  were  twenty  families 
here.  W.  T.  Davis,  "Brookfield,"  in  History  of  Worcester  County,  i,  511^14. 


BO  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

lowed  to  plant  Deerfield ;  other  Dedham  pioneers  went 
after  this  vanguard,  attracted,  as  Frary  had  been,  by 
the  excellent  soil  of  the  region.  To  John  Pynchon  and 
his  associates  was  granted  the  tract  named  Northfield, 
which  drew  settlers  from  Northampton,  Hadley,  and 
Hatfield.  Various  grants  were  made  in  "Worcester  from 
1657  to  1664,  but  the  tract  was  too  isolated,  and  the 
danger  from  Indians  too  great  to  make  it  attractive  to 
settlers.  The  General  Court  finally  sent  out  a  committee 
to  look  over  the  ground  and  report  upon  its  suitability 
as  a  site  for  a  town ;  they  brought  back  word  that  there 
was  enough  good  land  for  thirty  families,  or  for  sixty 
if  other  grants  were  annexed.  Settlement  followed,  and 
before  1675  thirty  houselots  had  been  laid  out,  houses 
•/  built  for  some  thirty  families,  and  the  farms  were  under 
cultivation.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  settle- 
ments made  in  the  first  fifteen  years  following  the  Re- 
storation. 

North  of  Massachusetts  there  was  almost  no  growth. 
^  In  Maine  but  one  new  town  was  begun,  —  Brunswick, 
whose  first  settler  arrived  in  1675.  New  Hampshire 
grew  but  little,  the  only  attempts  at  new  towns  being  in 
the  vicinity  of  Dunstable,  and  above  Northfield,  as  con- 
tinuations of  those  settlements. 

Rhode  Island,  determined  to  win  her  case  as  to  the 
western  boundary,  had  in  1669  stationed  thirty  fami- 
lies in  the  territory  now  occupied  by  Westerly,  Hopkin- 
ton,  Charlestown,  and  Richmond.  Two  families  began 
the  town  of  Woonsocket  in  1666,  and  Barrington  (till 
1717  part  of  Swansey)  was  settled  in  1667.  East  Green- 
wich owed  its  beginning  to  the  boundary  dispute,  for 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  51 

families  were  encouraged  to  go  there  by  offers  of  ninety- 
acres  to  fifty  men,  on  condition  that  they  build  homes 
on  the  land  within  a  year,  and  open  a  road  from  the 
bay  into  their  country.  The  grants  were  made  in  1667, 
and  settlement  followed  the  same  year  both  in  East  and 
West  Greenwich ;  but  the  latter  settlement,  because  of  its 
poor  land  and  lack  of  communication  with  Narragansett 
Bay,  was  of  very  slow  growth. 

In  Connecticut  the  tendency  to  expansion  took  the 
form  of  filling  in  about  the  old  towns; — for  example, 
the  Windsor  people  moved  over  into  East  Windsor  about 
1662.  Ten  years  later  twenty-seven  men  are  named  as  a 
"  list  of  persons  on  the  East  side  of  Great  River,"  who 
were  appointed  to  work  the  highways.  The  lands  of  the 
first  settlers  almost  all  ran  three  miles  back  from  the 
river ;  their  houses  were  usually  erected  on  the  upland, 
but  as  their  number  increased  they  were  compelled  to 
move  back  into  the  woodlands.  Haddam  was  purchased 
from  the  Indians  in  1662,  and  twenty-eight  young  men 
from  Hartford,  Wethersfield,  and  Windsor  began  new 
homes  for  themselves  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  Doubt- 
less many  of  these  were  sons  of  the  pioneers  of  those 
towns,  who  had  inherited  the  instinct  of  frontiersmen, 
and  determined  to  begin  life  on  farms  of  their  own 
where  land  was  cheap  and  plentiful.  In  1668  the  town 
was  large  enough  to  be  incorporated.  In  the  north  and 
west  expansion  took  place,  as  when  Hartford,  Windsor, 
and  Guilford  sent  out  twelve  planters  who  began  Kil- 
lingworth  in  1663.^    WalUngford,  "New  Haven  Vil- 

1  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.y  529.   The  town  was  named  Kenilworth  ; 
the  present  name  of  the  town  is  a  corruption  from  it.  Ibid.,  530. 


62       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

lage/'  had  been  purchased  by  the  Davenport-Eaton 
Company  in  1638 ;  for  thirty-two  years  the  tract  was 
unoccupied,  but  the  year  after  its  settlement  it  had  a 
town-meeting,  when  there  were  about  one  hundred 
inhabitants,  and  in  1674  it  settled  its  own  minister, 
though  regular  services  had  been  held  on  Sunday  since 
the  first  days  of  the  arrival  of  inhabitants/  Half  of  the 
congregation  of  Stratford,  about  fifteen  families,  taking 
their  minister  with  them,  settled  Woodbury  in  1673 
after  a  church  quarrel,  —  the  old  and  fruitful  source  of 
Connecticut  towns.  These  towns  serve  as  types  of  the 
great  expansion  within  the  borders  of  Connecticut. 

Off  the  Connecticut  coast  lay  Long  Island,  to  which 
New  Englanders  had  emigrated  from  time  to  time,  until 
in  1670  it  was  inhabited  from  one  end  to  the  other. 
In  the  western  portion  lay  four  or  five  towns  whose 
population  was  wholly  Dutch ;  the  rest  of  the  island, 
containing  twelve  towns  and  scattered  farmhouses,  was 
entirely  English.^  Expansion  in  that  direction  was  no 
longer  possible,  and  the  extension  of  the  frontier  must 
obviously  take  place  elsewhere. 

Connecticut,  far  from  being  the  "land  of  steady 
habits,"  had  always  been  productive  of  the  new  towns 
which  were  plain  illustrations  of  the  unrest  of  her  inhab- 
itants. Not  restrained  by  the  limits  of  the  colony,  large 
emigrations  took  place  after  1660  to  another  district, 
—  New  Jersey.  About  the  time  that  the  grant  to 
Berkeley  and  Carteret  was  made,  a  few  pioneers  from 

1  Davis,  WalUngford,  70-108.    There  is  an  interesting  compact  drawn 
up  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  the  town ;  ibid.,  77,  78. 
'  Denton,  New  York  (ed.  of  1902),  41. 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  53 

Connecticut  began  the  town  of  Shrewsbury,  to  which 
came  shortly  other  families  from  Rhode  Island  and 
from  New  York  (as  the  New  Netherland  acquisition 
soon  came  to  be  called).  A  typical  Connecticut  removal 
was  the  defection  of  a  portion  of  the  New  Haven 
colony  to  New  Jersey  in  1666.  Some  of  the  New 
Haven  people  had  opposed  strenuously  any  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  Restoration,  and  feeling  had  run  high 
between  the  ultra-republicans  and  the  more  conserva- 
tive party  which  could  see  but  one  safe  course,  namely, 
to  follow  the  lead  of  England  in  her  attitude  towards 
King  Charles.  In  1661  some  of  the  more  democratic 
families  opened  negotiations  with  Governor  Stuyvesant 
of  New  Netherland,  with  a  view  to  removal  from  New 
Haven.  Nothing  came  of  this  attempt,  but  four  years 
later  the  problem  was  solved  by  the  arrival  in  East 
Jersey  of  its  new  governor,  Philip  Carteret.  Imme- 
diately upon  his  arrival  the  governor  sent  agents  into 
New  England  to  publish  the  terms  which  the  pro- 
prietors offered  to  settlers  and  to  invite  them  to  these 
lands.  The  offer  was  a  liberal  one,  and  in  the  following 
year  a  committee  from  the  Connecticut  towns  of  Guil- 
ford, Branford,  and  Milford  was  sent  ahead  to  look 
over  the  country,  learn  more  exactly  the  terms  of  the 
offer,  and  ascertain  how  friendly  the  Indians  were  apt 
to  be.  The  members  returned  with  a  favorable  report, 
and  were  straightway  sent  back  with  power  to  buy  a 
township,  select  a  site,  and  make  all  arrangements  for 
immediate  settlement.  Thirty  families  set  out  by  boat 
from  New  Haven,  and  established  themselves  in  what  is 
now  Newark,  in  separate  neighborhoods,  according  to 


54  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  towns  from  which  they  had  come/  Immediately 
after  their  arrival  delegates  were  appointed  to  draw  up 
a  form  of  government,  by  the  terms  of  which  no  one 
could  become  a  freeman,  or  vote,  or  hold  office  who 
was  not  a  member  of  the  Congregational  Church.  True 
to  their  traditions,  the  church  in  Newark  was  a  Con- 
necticut church  moved  in  its  entirety,  —  pastor,  deacons, 
records,  and  major  part  of  the  congregation.  The  first 
school  was  established  in  1676.  The  College  of  New 
Jersey,  now  known  as  Princeton  University,  was  begun 
in  Newark,  over  half  a  century  later,  and  thus  the 
foundations  of  higher  education  in  New  Jersey  were 
laid  by  the  descendants  of  the  Connecticut  pioneers 
who  had  laid  the  foundations  of  the  town  and  had  given 
it  the  character  it  was  to  maintain.  Governor  Belcher 
testified  to  the  tenacity  with  which  Newark  people 
insisted  upon  their  rights  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution ; 
—  an  interesting  comment  upon  the  transmission  of 
political  theories  from  generation  to  generation.^ 

Connecticut  did  not  furnish  all  the  pioneers  to  New 
Jersey.  Settlers  from  the  Massachusetts  towns  of  Haver- 
hill, Newbury,  Yarmouth,  and  Barnstable  removed  to 
Woodbridge  in  1666-67,  and  in  a  few  years  controlled 
about  thirty  thousand  acres  through  the  homes  and 
farms  of  the  six  hundred  people  living  there.  A  small 
company  from  Piscataqua  in  New  Hampshire  came 
about  the  same  time  to  found  Piscataway.  Elizabeth 
was  settled  by  a  mixed  population,  in  contrast  with  the 

^  This  arrangement  was  soon  broken  up  by  the  sense  of  mutual  danger, 
and  the  settlement  was  made  more  compact. 

2  Barber  and  Howe,  Hist.  Coll.  of  N.  F.,  173-176.  Some  of  this 
Newark  colony  settled  in  Bloomfield.  Ihid.f  156. 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  55 

homogeneous  character  of  such  a  settlement  as  Newark. 
The  pioneers  of  Elizabeth  were  drawn  from  England, 
Scotland,  New  England,  and  Long  Island.  A  typical 
first  settler  was  John  Strickland,  who  had  come  from 
England  with  Winthrop's  company  and  settled  in 
Watertown.  He  was  one  of  the  members  of  the  church 
in  that  place  who  moved  to  Wethersfield.  Soon  after 
he  took  up  his  abode  in  Fairfield,  from  which  town  he 
went  with  the  founders  of  Hampstead,  Long  Island, 
and  began  a  fourth  pioneer's  home.  In  1661  he  was 
living  in  Huntington,  Long  Island,  but  was  induced 
to  move  to  Jamaica,  a  little  farther  away.  In  1666  he 
made  what  was  probably  his  last  move, —  to  Elizabeth,^ 
where  most  of  the  settlers  had  come  as  had  Strickland 
from  Long  Island,  the  majority  of  them  from  South- 
ampton.^ 

New  Jersey  was  settled  rather  thickly  from  the  first, 
for  several  reasons.  Its  proximity  to  New  York  assured 

1  Hatfield,  Elizabeth,  69,  60. 

'  They  were  men  from  twenty-five  to  forty  years  of  age,  with  wives 
and  children.  The  whole  settlement  was  planted  quite  in  accord  with 
Denton's  description  of  the  mode  of  settlement  prevalent  in  New  Nether- 
land  in  1670.  Denton  says  that  towns  were  usually  begun  by  the  banding 
together  of  about  enough  families  to  make  a  town,  who  went  (with  the 
governor's  consent)  to  look  at  a  tract  of  land  which  appeared  desirable. 
Upon  their  return,  they  were  accustomed  to  petition  the  governor  for  a 
grant  of  the  land  selected,  and  upon  being  admitted  into  the  colony,  the 
patent  was  accorded  to  the  original  company  and  their  associates.  These 
persons  thereupon  made  a  settlement,  and  admitted  inhabitants  until  the 
town  was  full,  when  land  was  allotted  "suitable  to  every  man's  occa- 
sions," the  rest  being  held  in  common  till  the  time  seemed  ripe  for  a 
second  division.  The  pasture  land  was,  however,  never  divided,  but  "  lies 
in  common  to  the  whole  Town."  See  Denton,  Brief  Description  of  New 
rorjfc  (ed.  of  1902),  57,  58. 


56       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  pioneers  a  steady  market  for  their  surplus  products 
as  well  as  for  the  fruits  of  their  Indian  trade,  besides 
enabling  them  with  little  difficulty  to  obtain  in  return 
what  they  needed;  the  Indians,  far  from  being  a  men- 
ace to  the  settlers,  were  generally  friendly,  and  there 
was  from  the  first  a  lively  traffic  in  furs,  skins,  and  game. 
These  facts,  combined  with  the  advantages  of  good  soil 
and  climate,  and  the  generous  policy  of  the  proprietors, 
contributed  not  a  little  to  the  prosperity  of  the  colony. 
In  1668  was  drawn  up  the  first  New  Jersey  code  of  laws ; 
and  it  is,  as  one  would  expect,  essentially  a  New  Eng- 
land product.  Deputies  from  each  village  met  in  Eliza- 
beth, and,  the  Puritan  element  predominating,  the  laws 
(especially  those  relating  to  criminals)  are  almost  identi- 
cal with  the  Massachusetts  laws  of  the  same  period.  The 
refusal  of  the  inhabitants,  now  grown  accustomed  to 
individual  ownership  in  land,  to  pay  the  quit-rents  de- 
manded by  the  proprietors  led  to  a  rebellion  in  1672, 
in  which  the  settlers  won  their  point. 

Jte.  In  1675  there  were  probably  one  hundred  and  twenty 

thousand  people  in  New  England,  of  whom  sixteen  thou- 

y  sand  could  bear  arms.  We  have  seen  how  widely  they 
were  scattered,  and  how  great  had  been  the  extension  of 
the  frontier  since  the  Pequot  War  forty  years  before.^  A 
singularly  astute  and  capable  Indian,  Philip,  had  since 
about  1662  been  more  or  less  of  an  annoyance  to  the 
Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island  settlers ;  but  in  1674  it  was 
evident  that  a  general  Indian  uprising,  planned  and  in- 
stigated by  Philip,  was  imminent.  In  that  year  he  and 
his  warriors  descended  upon  Swansey,  in  Rhode  Island, 
^  See  map  opposite. 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


gland 

Settrement. 
1675 

Just  before 
King  Philip's  War. 


74 

72             Longitude  West             70             from  Greenwich              68 

—\ 

A 

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1 

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1 

46 

I  ^' 

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'\^'r' 

i^^4x 

46 

f[ 

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/a 

Jf 

iJ^' 

'P 

vh 

fsi 

44 

'f\ 

^  I 

^     1 

ZM- 

44 

iffy\ 

[^ 

r\K^  ^ 

rborough 

J 

/           /j    Hat«eC 

^adley  ■ 
^ngfielc 

Naahual        .^J^^ 

42 

j7     Winds!  ^ 

1       New  Engl 
Settleme 
1677 

and 

\jr 

j^J. 

r"-^ 

Just  after 
King  Philip's  War. 

72                                                               70                                                              68              - 

PITIRS     CNCftfi..    lOSTON, 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  57 

and  for  nearly  two  years  —  until  his  death  —  all  of 
New  England  lived  in  terror.  The  struggle  is  of  the 
keenest  interest  to  us  because  of  its  effect  upon  the 
expansion  of  settlement  which  had  at  the  time  of  the 
outbreak  reached  the  greatest  extent  attained  up  to 
that  time/  There  was  not  a  New  England  colony  which 
did  not  suffer,  there  was  scarcely  an  outpost  which  was  j 
not  wholly  deserted  and  burned,  or  which  did  not  re- 
ceive a  severe  blow  from  which  it  took  long  to  recover. 
The  outposts  of  settlement  naturally  suffered  most.  The 
district  of  Maine,  which  in  1675  contained  thirteen  towns 
and  plantations,  and  could  muster  perhaps  a  thousand 
soldiers  in  case  of  need,  was  desolated.  Every  settler  in 
Kennebec  County  had  fled  by  1677,  though  fifty  families 
had  lived  there  seven  years  before.  Bristol  had  been 
burned,  Wiscasset  harassed,  Biddeford  destroyed,  Port- 
land deserted  and  then  burned,  Brunswick  reduced  to 
ashes.  The  whole  country  east  of  Casco  Bay  was  a  waste, 
and  of  all  the  towns  and  plantations  enumerated  five  years 
before,  only  about  six  remained  in  1680.  The  allies  of 
Philip  had  dealt  the  country  east  of  New  Hampshire  a 
blow  from  which  it  did  not  recover  in  half  a  century. 

New  Hampshire  suffered  hardly  at  all.  Even  Nashua, 
the  extreme  frontier,  had  one  hardy  fighter,  Jonathan 
Tyng,  who  stayed  when  all  his  neighbors  here  and  over 
the  line  in  Massachusetts  had  fled,  so  that  the  town  was 
never  wholly  deserted. 

Massachusetts  suffered  greatly.  From  Seekonk  and 
Rehoboth  in  the  southern  part,  to  Northfield  and  Dun- 
stable in  the  north  and  west,  sixteen  towns  were  either 

^  See  map  opposite. 


68       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

destroyed  or  deserted.^  Others,  like  Springfield,  were  par- 
tially burned ;  and  even  so  populous  a  town  as  Dedliam 
was  threatened  to  such  a  degree  that  several  terrified 
families  fled  to  Boston. 

In  Khode  Island  four  towns  were  either  destroyed 
or  abandoned,  —  Warwick,  Coventry,  Westerly,  and 
Charlestown.  Connecticut  suffered  comparatively  little ; 
the  Wallingford  people  fortified  their  homes,  anticipat- 
ing an  attack,  and  the  Woodbury  settlers  fled  to  Strat- 
ford, where  they  remained  a  year.  Simsbury  was 
destroyed,  the  inhabitants  taking  refuge  at  Windsor; 
Waterbury  was  abandoned  from  1675  to  1677,  Granby, 
Woodbury,  and  Southbury  for  a  year  or  two. 

The  blow  was  in  itself  a  severe  one,  and  it  would 
have  been  long  before  the  frontier  again  regained  its 
former  limit,  especially  upon  the  northern  boundaries, 
had  this  been  the  only  struggle.  Scarcely  had  the  mem- 
ory of  King  Philip's  War  faded,  however,  when  the 
colonies  were  drawn  into  the  first  of  that  series  of  con- 

*  The  towns  were  Worcester,  Mendon,  Berlin,  Deerfield,  Northfield, 
Groton,  Lancaster,  Stow,  Brookfield,  New  Bedford,  Medfield,  Marlbor- 
ough, Middleborough,  Milford,  Ayer,  and  Maynard. 

At  the  time  there  were  about  forty  families  in  Groton,  twenty  in  Brook- 
field,  and  thirty-eight  in  Mendon.  W.  T.  Davis,  "  Brookfield,"  in  History 
of  Worcester  County y  i,  614  ;  G.  B.  Williams,  «  Mendon,"  ihid.,  376  ;  S.  A. 
Green,  "Groton,"  in  History  of  Middlesex  County,  ii,  509.  **The  number 
of  settlers  in  Northampton  was,  according  to  the  records,  about  one  hun^ 
dred,  and  allowing  three  to  the  family  of  each  settler,  which  would  seem 
to  be  a  reasonably  estimated  average,  that  town  contained  four  hundred  in- 
habitants. Hatfield  and  Hadley  probably  contained  from  two  hundred  to 
four  hundred  more,  while  Westfield,  Deerfield,  and  Northfield  contained  an 
aggregate,  perhaps  of  two  hundred.  Fifteen  hundred  would  doubtless  be  an 
extravagant  estimate  of  the  valley  at  the  date  stated,  and  the  majority 
of  these  were  dependents."  See  Holland,  Western  Massachusetts ^  i,  72. 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  59 

flicts  between  England  and  France  for  supremacy  in  the 
New  World  which  have  sometimes  been  called  their 
second  hundred  years'  war.  The  struggle  which  began 
as  the  War  of  the  Palatinate  in  Europe  was  extended 
to  the  colonies  as  King  William's  War.  Here  the  French 
and  English  contended  for  the  aid  of  the  Indians,  and 
the  horrors  of  savage  warfare  were  added  to  the  other 
hardships  of  the  conflict.  When  the  Peace  of  Ryswick 
was  signed  in  1697  the  possessions  of  the  two  countries 
remained  as  they  had  been  at  the  opening  of  hostilities 
in  1689,  but  the  frontier-line  had  been  again  thrust 
back  by  reason  of  burned  and  abandoned  towns.  The 
second  of  these  European  contests  began  in  1700  as  the 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  known  in  the  colonies 
as  Queen  Anne's  War.  Here,  again,  the  Indians  played 
a  large  part  in  the  devastation  of  frontier  villages,  and 
plundered  and  laid  waste  large  areas  of  thinly  populated 
territory.  The  Peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713-14  terminated 
hostilities,  and  was  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the 
development  of  the  colonies,  especially  in  the  north,  for 
New  England  was  now  surrounded  by  friends,  not  foes ; 
since  England  had,  with  the  aid  of  the  colonial  army, 
wrested  Nova  Scotia  from  France,  and  had  wrung  an 
acknowledgment  of  sovereignty  from  the  Iroquois  Indians, 
—  the  fiercest  tribes  which  threatened  the  pioneers  who 
had  explored  the  lands  west  of  the  Hudson  River.  An  un- 
precedented opportunity  was  thus  opened  for  expansion  to 
the  west,  and  the  outpouring  of  population  in  that  direc- 
tion followed  immediately.  A  study  of  the  details  of  settle- 
ment will  show  clearly  how  expansion  was  seriously  hin- 
dered by  these  successive  conflicts  from  1675  to  1713. 


60       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

So  widespread  had  been  the  devastation  during  the 
years  of  warfare  that  various  precautionary  measures 
are  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  the  several  colonies. 
For  instance,  in  1677  orders  for  laying  out  the  town  of 
East  Greenwich,  Khode  Island,  were  issued,  on  condi- 
tion that  each  of  the  forty-eight  freemen  to  whom 
grants  were  made  should  settle  upon  his  houselot  within 
a  year,  and  build  a  house  "  fit  and  suitable  for  habi- 
tation." Neglect  of  this  order  was  to  mean  forfeiture  of 
the  share.  In  the  district  of  Maine,  a  large  portion  of 
which  Massachusetts  had  purchased  in  1677  for  £1250, 
renewal  of  settlement  was  regulated  by  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts,  which  enumerated  certain  towns  as 
being  open  to  reoccupation,  but  in  these  no  less  than 
twenty  or  thirty  families  were  to  go  together.  They  were, 
moreover,  to  build  near  the  shore,  upon  lots  of  three  or 
four  acres  to  a  family,  the  village  to  be  a  compact  one, 
with  the  farmlands  lying  about  it.  In  this  way  it  was 
hoped  that  the  destruction  of  the  frontier  might  be 
avoided.^ 

^  Connecticut  made  similar  attempts  to  protect  outlying  settlements. 
An  order  of  the  General  Court  in  1704  thus  enumerates  the  frontier 
towns  :  Simsbury,  Waterbury,  Woodbury,  Danbury,  Colchester,  Windham, 
Mansfield,  and  Plainfield.  It  also  enjoins  the  settlers  in  those  places  not 
to  break  up  the  towns  or  desert  them  without  permission  from  the  court, 
on  penalty  of  forfeiting  title  to  their  estates.  See  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  iv,  463. 

One  or  two  more  instances  show  both  these  points  :  in  1708-09,  twenty- 
five  families  from  Norwalk,  attracted  by  the  limestone  soil,  purchased  the 
tract  thirteen  by  three  miles  upon  which  Ridgefield  is  located.  In  1712  a 
petition  was  drawn  up  for  a  church  ;  the  next  year  a  minister  preached 
from  time  to  time,  and  one  was  formally  settled  in  1714.  See  D.  W. 
Teller,  Ridgefield,  3-14,  92. 

In  1708  the  General  Court  granted  Newtown  to  thirty-six  petitioners, 
and  appointed  a  committee  of  four  (one  each  from  Stratford,  Fairfield, 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  61 

But  even  such  precautions  were  of  no  avail  in  restor- 
ing a  feeling  of  confidence  which  might  lead  settlers  to 
the  lands  lying  north  and  east  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
In  Maine,  not  a  single  town  was  planted  in  those  forty 
years,  and  there  were  actually  fewer  people  and  fewer 
towns  in  Maine  at  the  end  of  the  period  than  there  had 
been  in  1660/  New  Hampshire  was,  as  has  been  said, 
but  little  affected  by  the  ravages  of  Indian  warfare  from 
1674  to  1676.  But  no  one  wanted  to  venture  his  life  in 
a  new  plantation,  so  that,  although  the  old  towns  filled 
up,  new  ones  were  not  begun.  A  truce  with  the  Indians 
in  1694  led  to  the  granting  of  a  charter  to  twenty  peti- 
tioners from  Hampton  who  wished  to  settle  at  Kingston. 
Many  were  obliged  to  return  to  their  old  homes  within 
two  years,  though  after  the  war  they  resumed  their  en- 
terprise; it  was  1725,  however,  before  the  first  minister 
was  settled.  Greenland,  settled  in  the  latter  years  of  the 
seventeenth  century  from  Portsmouth  and  as  a  part  of 
it,  petitioned  in  1705  for  a  minister  and  schoolmaster  of 
its  own,  and  begged  to  be  exempted  from  the  support 
of  the  Portsmouth  church  and  school,  since  it  had  a 
population  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  inhabitants.  In 
1708  it  was  estimated  that  there  were  not  a  thousand 
men  in  the  colony.  Hudson  was  settled  in  1710,  but  there 
was  no  further  expansion  of  New  Hampshire  till  1716. 

In  Massachusetts  the  towns  which  had  been  destroyed 
or  depopulated  during  King  PhiHp's  War  were  rebuilt 
almost  immediately  afterward.  Lancaster  lay  desolate 

Woodbury,  and  Danbury)  to  allot  the  land  to  these  thirty-six,  who  must 
settle  their  land  within  four  years  and  live  there  for  four  years.  In  1711 
the  land  was  divided  among  the  proprietors,  and  the  town  incorporated. 
^  See  map  opposite  page  70. 


62       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

till  1679 ;  two  years  later  seventeen  or  eighteen  families 
had  returned  and  petitioned  successfully  for  exemption 
from  "  county  rates  "  because  of  their  hardships.  Some 
towns,  like  Framingham,  grew  very  rapidly.  Stow,  which 
had  no  town-meeting  for  five  years,  was  filled  up  by 
returning  famihes  who  brought  with  them  others  from 
Concord,  so  that  not  only  was  the  town  incorporated, 
but  it  supported  its  own  minister.  Dunstable  people  re- 
turned immediately  after  the  close  of  the  war,  and  com- 
pleted their  church  within  two  years.  In  1711  there 
were  seven  garrisoned  houses,  two  of  which  were  within 
the  present  limits  of  Tyngsborough ;  to  these  garrison- 
houses  were  assigned  nineteen  soldiers,  and  thirteen  fam- 
ihes claimed  their  protection.  But  presently  the  com- 
munity split  into  two,  because  each  desired  the  control 
of  its  own  civil  affairs  "  for  greater  convenience  of  pub- 
lic worship  "  ;  and  over  the  location  of  the  meeting-house 
the  town  separated  into  the  two  villages  of  Dunstable 
and  Tyngsborough.  Of  new  towns,  some  were  settled  in 
Plymouth  County  from  the  older  towns  in  the  old  col- 
ony, —  Halifax,  Hanson,  Wareham,  and  Lakeville.  Set- 
tlers moved  from  Eastham  to  Truro,  settling  that  town 
and  Provincetown  about  1700,  though  land  had  been 
purchased  several  years  before.  But  the  growth  in  the 
southern  part  of  Massachusetts  was  chiefly  because  of 
increased  population  in  the  old  towns.  In  Worcester 
County,  the  records  of  the  town  of  Worcester  are  like 
those  of  the  Maine  towns,  —  a  series  of  dates  of  settle- 
ment and  abandonment,  till  only  one  family  remained  in 
1701,  the  reason  for  its  final  desertion  being  that  the 
General  Court  had  stricken  it  from  the  list  of  frontier- 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  63 

towns  which  were  not  to  be  abandoned.  Its  permanent 
settlement  dated  from  1713.  Oxford,  a  new  Worcester 
County  town,  whose  proprietors  included  the  governor 
and  deputy-governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  settled  in 
1686  by  thirty  French  Protestant  refugees,  one  of  the 
many  companies  driven  out  of  France  by  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  To  these  emigrants  were  granted 
about  twelve  thousand  acres.  Upon  the  breaking  up  of 
the  settlement  by  Indians  in  1696  the  settlers  went  to 
Boston,  and  the  land  reverted  to  the  proprietors ;  these 
granted  it  to  new  settlers  inl713,  on  condition  that  at  least 
thirty  families  settle  the  tract  at  once.  The  condition  was 
fulfilled,  and  the  town  incorporated  the  same  year.* 

Khode  Island,  after  King  Philip's  War,  built  up  the 
towns  which  had  been  destroyed,  but  aside  from  natural 
increase  in  the  older  towns  and  some  immigration,  it 
had  no  expansion.  A  company  of  forty-five  French  Pro- 
testant families  began  a  plantation  called  Frenchtown  in 
1686,  and  built  a  church  and  twenty-six  houses ;  but 
their  neighbors  made  life  such  a  burden  to  them  that 
the  refugees  were  dispersed.  Four  of  the  five  towns  later 
received  from  Massachusetts  were  settled  at  this  time, — 
Little  Compton,  Warren,  Tiverton,  and  Bristol,  the  last- 
named  settled  by  Boston  merchants  who  named  it  for 

^  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  3d  ser.,  ii,  29-32.  Hopkinton  is  slightly  differ- 
ent from  the  others.  It  was  settled  on  a  tract  which  was  purchased  for 
the  purpose  of  perpetuating  the  legacy  of  Edward  Hopkins  to  Harvard 
College.  To  the  settlers  of  1710-12,  the  president  and  trustees  of  the 
college  leased  it.  These  pioneers  came  singly  from  Sudbury,  Framingham, 
Sherborn,  Concord,  Needham,  and  Marlborough  ;  the  eighteen  families 
who  joined  them  in  1719  came  from  Scotland  and  Ireland.  See  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1st  ser.,  iv,  15,  16,  and  Clement  Meserve,  "  Hopkinton," 
in  History  of  Middlesex  County,  iii,  800. 


64       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Bristol  in  England,  with  the  hope  that  its  fine  harhor 
might  cause  it  to  rival  its  namesake.  Scituate  (Rhode 
Island),  which  had  grown  but  slowly,  and  had  no  very 
good  reputation  for  law  and  order,  received  a  better 
class  of  settlers  in  1710  from  Scituate,  Massachusetts, 
whereupon  it  took  the  name  of  the  latter  place,  and  was 
incorporated  in  1731.  Since  the  seventeenth  century 
most  new  towns  in  Rhode  Island  have  had  their  origin  in 
the  subdivision  of  old  towns  then  in  existence.  In  1715 
there  were,  perhaps,  nine  thousand  people  in  the  colony ; 
nine  towns  sent  delegates  to  the  colonial  assembly.^ 

Connecticut  expanded  more  rapidly  than  any  other 
New  England  colony  during  the  period  1676  to  1713. 
The  towns  which  had  suffered  during  the  war  were 
quickly  rebuilt,  and  the  development  of  Woodbury  is 
typical  of  others.  In  1675  its  people  fled  to  Stratford, 
some  returning  the  next  year,  though  others  were 
afraid  to  take  up  their  old  home  for  several  years;  in 
1682  its  population  was  four  or  five  hundred. 

The  first  new  town  planted  after  the  wg,r  was  Meriden, 
which  drew  its  pioneers  from  Wallingford,  and  was  for  a 
long  time  a  parish  of  that  town.  To  the  east,  Preston  and 
Groton  were  settled  about  1680 ;  to  the  north,  Enfield 
the  next  year.  Danbury,  Mansfield,  and  Windham  were 
founded  before  1687.  Plainfield  numbered  persons  from 
many  towns  among  its  first  inhabitants ;  —  from  Massa- 
chusetts, Woburn,  Stow,  Chelmsford,  Haverhill,  Ips- 
wich, and  Concord ;  from  Connecticut,  Stonington,  New 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,  iv,  466  (ed.  1882).  The  towns  were  Newport, 
Providence,  Portsmouth,  Warwick,  Westerly,  Kingston,  New  Shoreham, 
Jamestown,  and  Greenwich. 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  65 

London,  and  the  vicinity  of  the  latter  town.  The  settle- 
ment was  retarded  because  of  the  impossibility  of  getting 
a  clear  title  to  the  lands.  In  1704  it  was  still  a  frontier- 
town  ;  the  next  year  it  had  a  church  for  the  first  time. 
At  the  same  time  that  Plainfield  was  settled  (1690)  set- 
tlers from  Hartford,  Newtown,  Woburn,  Dorchester, 
Barnstable,  and  Medfield  began  the  town  of  Canterbury, 
the  two  towns  claiming  thirty  families  in  1699,  when 
Plainfield  was  incorporated,  including  Canterbury.  Four 
years  later  Canterbury  was  incorporated  as  a  separate 
town,  but  evidently  Plainfield  had  far  outstripped  it  in 
numbers. 

Woodstock  owed  its  existence  to  settlers  from  Rox- 
bury,  Massachusetts,  who  found  their  town  "too  small 
for  its  inhabitants,"  and  in  1686  moved — thirty  families 
strong — over  the  old  Connecticut  path  to  New  Roxbury. 
Oxford  and  Mendon  were  their  nearest  neighbors ;  but 
their  isolation  seems  not  to  have  troubled  them.  It  was 
in  all  probability  their  pastor,  John  Eliot,  who  told  them 
of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the  "Nipmuck''  country 
in  which  they  settled.  In  1690  they  renamed  their  town 
Woodstock,  held  a  town-meeting,  and  settled  a  minister. 
But  the  town  grew  slowly,  for  immigration  was  not  rapid 
to  a  place  where  private  proprietorship  was  the  rule.* 

Lisbon  grew  but  slowly,  retarded,  as  was  Plainfield, 
because  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  a  clear  title.  Pur- 
chases were  made  here  by  men  from  Ipswich,  Massachu- 

1  E.  D.  Lamed,  Windham  County ,  18^4.  Also  C.  W.  Bowen,  Wood- 
stocky  20,  23,  24.  Pomfret  was  settled  the  same  year  as  Woodstock,  by 
farmers  also  from  Roxbury,  but  only  a  few  came  until  after  1695,  for 
fear  of  the  Indians.  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.f  437, 


66  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

setts,  in  1694-95,  and  settlements  were  begun  at  once; 
yet  in  1718  there  were  only  sixteen  persons  on  the  roll 
of  accepted  inhabitants.*  Northampton  families  joined 
others  from  Windsor,  Saybrook,  and  Long  Island  to  be- 
gin Hebron  in  1704,  before  the  township  was  granted. 
The  town's  growth  was  delayed  for  two  reasons,  —  the 
Indians  were  troublesome,  and  the  proprietors,  non- 
resident  themselves,  claimed  extensive  tracts  upon  which 
they  would  neither  settle  themselves  nor  allow  others 
to  do  so.  The  General  Court  was  compelled  to  appoint 
several  committees  to  encourage  and  assist  the  planters, 
and  were  so  far  successful  that  about  1713  ''  they  were 
enabled  to  erect  a  meeting-house,  and  settle  a  minister 
among  them."  ^ 

This  period  saw  settlers  leaving  New  England  for 
other  colonies,  —  for  Bedford  in  Westchester  County, 
New  York,  for  example.^  A  settlement  had  been  made 
in  the  town  of  Westchester  many  years  before,  so  that 
the  district  was  not  unknown.  Settlers  also  went  in 
large  numbers  to  East  Jersey,'*  where  they  not  only 

^  F.  M.  Caulkins,  History  of  Norwich,  257-259.  The  river  towns  at  this 
time  sent  settlers  to  Colchester,  but  complaint  was  made  that  the  settle- 
ment was  being  delayed  by  Saybrook  men,  who  claimed  large  grants  of 
land  there.  See  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  iv,  298. 

Hartford  and  Northampton  furnished  the  pioneers  of  Coventry  chiefly, 
though  others  came  from  "  a  great  variety  of  places."  See  Trumbull, 
Connecticut,  i,  443,  444. 

The  first  settlers  of  Durham  were  from  Guilford,  two  arriving  in  1703, 
and  others  shortly  after ;  yet  in  1707  there  were  but  fifteen  families. 
The  next  year  the  town  filled  up  with  newcomers  from  Northampton, 
Stratford,  Milford,  and  other  towns.  See  iUd.t  400. 

2  Trumbull,  Connecticut^  i,  430,  431. 

3  See  map  opposite. 

<New  Jersey  had  been  divided  in  1674  into  East  and  West  Jersey. 


PtTIRS.    tHOR 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  67 

filled  up  tlie  towns  already  established,  but  began  new 
ones.  About  1682  Quakers  from  Rhode  Island  and  1 
Long  Island  settled  in  Springfield ;  in  1697  pioneers 
from  Fairfield,  Connecticut,  planted  a  new  Fairfield  and 
organized  a  Presbyterian  church  the  same  year.  Besides 
the  new  towns,  settlers  from  Long  Island  and  New 
England  were  constantly  moving  to  Newark,  Elizabeth, 
and  Middletown,  which  on  account  of  their  increasing 
population  either  continually  extended  their  limits,  or 
formed  in  their  neighborhoods  centres  for  new  villages. 
But  for  about  ten  years  (1693  to  1703)  immigration 
"was  almost  shut  off  because  of  uncertainties  as  to  land 
tenure  and  land  titles.  An  interesting  phase  of  develop- 
ment was  manifested  in  the  number  of  religious  sects 
represented  in  East  Jersey,  where  such  a  variety  of 
churches  was  maintained  that  religious  intolerance  could 
hardly  exist.  The  people  of  Newark  and  Elizabeth  were 
Congregationalists,  and  each  town  had  its  own  church. 
There  were,  however,  among  them  a  few  Church 
of  England  adherents,  Presbyterians,  Anabaptists, 
and  Quakers.  The  first  Episcopal  service  held  in  Eliza- 
beth was  in  1703.  The  Rev.  John  Brooke  wrote  in 
1706  that  he  held  service  in  the  Dissenters'  meeting- 
house with  their  permission  till  his  church  was  built, 
and  that  some  stayed  after  their  own  service  to  attend 
his. 

As  to  population,  Colonel  Morris  reported  in  1700 
that  there  were  in  East  Jersey  ten  towns,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  about  eight  thousand.  Most  of  the  towns  were 
thickly  settled  in  one  part,  with  outlying  farms  and 
little  villages,  all  bearing  the  name  of  the  more  compact 


68 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


town.  He  found  settlers  generally  "  of  very  narrow  for- 
tunes and  such  as  could  not  well  subsist  in  the  places 
they  had  left."' 

Another  enterprise  which  illustrates  admirably  the 
character  of  New  England  pioneering  for  all  time  be- 
longs to  this  period.  On  the  22d  of  October,  1695,  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Lord  was  ordained  in  Dorchester,  Massa- 
chusetts, by  representatives 
of  the  churches  in  Roxbury, 
Boston,  Milton,  Charles- 
town,  and  Nonantum,  so 
that  he  might  go  to  South 
Carolina.  A  church  coven- 
ant was  entered  into  by 
Mr.  Lord  and  eight  others, 
among   whom  were    num- 


Oorchester  Colony 

SOUTH  CAROLINA 
1695-6 


bered  one  William  Norman  of  Carolina  (it  is  thought 
that  he  had  come  up  from  the  South  to  encourage  the 
undertaking),  three  men  from  Concord  (Massachusetts), 
two  from  Dorchester,  one  from  Reading,  and  one  from 
Sudbury.  The  object  was  undoubtedly  a  missionary  one, 
for  the  cause  of  removal  is  stated  to  be  "a  desire  to 
promote  the  extension  of  religion  in  the  southern  plan- 
tations." The  emigrants  moved  as  an  organized  church, 
taking  their  minister  with  them,  and  retaining  the  Con- 
gregational form  of  government.  They  sailed  in  two 
ships  to  the  Ashley  River,  and  on  the  2d  of  February, 
1696,  took  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  under  an 
oak,  and  began  to  build  a  settlement  which  they  called 

1 «  Memorial  of  Colonel  Morris,"  in  iV.  /.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  iv,  118- 
120. 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  69 

Dorchester.  They  erected  a  meeting-house  immediately, 
thus  perpetuating  another  Puritan  tradition/ 

Harvard  College  was  the  only  institution  of  higher 
learning  in  New  England  until  the  movement  for  a 
second  college  was  begun  in  1701  in  New  Haven,  which 
had  always  fostered  a  hope  that  some  day  it  might  har- 
bor such  an  institution  of  its  own.  Two  graduates  of 
Harvard  College  consulted  as  to  plans,  and  these,  with 
other  ministers,  founded  the  college  by  giving,  in  the 
succeeding  years,  books  for  that  purpose.^  After  the 
preliminaries  of  securing  a  charter  and  organizing  with 
trustees  were  carried  through,  a  "collegiate  school"  was 
started  at  Saybrook  in  1702.  Soon  after  its  removal  to 
New  Haven  in  1716  it  took  the  name  of  Yale  College, 
out  of  gratitude  to  its  first  liberal  patron,  and  there  were 
laid  the  foundations  which  assured  its  future  prosperity.' 
The  president  from  1716  to  1722  was  a  Harvard  grad- 
uate, as  was  the  Eev.  Thomas  Clap,  who  guided  the 
college  affairs  from  1739  to  1766.^  It  was  but  natural 
that  the  first  college  in  New  England,  itself  a  mission- 
ary enterprise,  should  thus  help  in  establishing  a  second 
institution  upon  a  similar  foundation. 

What  with  the  scattering  of  pioneers  from  Maine  to 
the  missionary  enterprise  in  South  Carolina,®  the  influx 

^  History  of  Dorchester j  Mass.,  261-263.  See,  also,  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  ColLf 
3d  ser.,  i,  55-59,  for  a  project  previous  to  1663  in  which  New  Englanders 
were  involved,  for  planting  a  colony  on  the  Charles  River  "in  Florida." 
-     2  Dexter,  History  of  Yale  University,  8. 

» Ibid.,  9-19. 

*  Ibid.,  21,  27. 

s  That  there  are  emigrations  about  which  scarcely  any  records  exist  is 
certain  from  an  item  in  the  family  history  called  The  Doane  Family.  One 
Daniel  Doane  of  Eastham,  Cape  Cod,  Massachusetts,  with  his  family,  and 


70       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

of  French  refugees  and  emigrants  from  England,  and 
the  fact  that  even  the  natural  increase  was  not  carefully 
recorded,  it  is  no  wonder  that  figures  indicating  popu- 
lation should  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  ascertain.  Most 
of  the  estimates  to  be  found  are  perhaps  but  shrewd 
guesses.  Trumbull  thought  that  Connecticut  had  in 
1665,  at  the  time  of  the  union,  some  eight  or  nine  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  with  abbut  twenty  ministers.  In  1680, 
the  answers  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations  (given 
by  the  governor  and  council)  estimated  the  militia  at 
2507,  from  which  Trumbull  thinks  the  whole  population 
about  twelve  thousand,  including  Rye  and  Bedford 
(now  in  New  York).  The  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island 
were  7181  at  the  time  of  the  first  census,  in  1708; 
Palfrey  has  estimated  the  male  population  of  New 
Hampshire  in  1708  as  under  one  thousand,  while  no 
figures  are  available  for  Maine,  so  precarious  had  been 
the  existence  of  that  district  during  the  entire  period. 

By  1713  the  settlers  on  the  frontier  had  become  dif- 
ferentiated more  or  less  from  their  brethren  who  stayed 
in  such  coast  towns  as  Boston  and  New  Haven.*  Whereas 
in  the  latter  prosperity  had  made  the  rise  of  a  leisure 
class  possible,  —  a  class  which  could  take  on  a  degree 

one  William  Twining,  with  his  family,  from  the  same  place,  joined  the 
Society  of  Friends,  and  ahout  seventeen  hundred  removed  to  New  Town, 
Bucks  Coimty,  Pennsylvania.  They  made  the  journey  of  seven  hundred 
miles  overland,  took  up  land,  and  affiliated  with  the  Quakers  of  that  sec- 
tion. Their  descendants  were  either  pioneers  in  Montgomery  and  Lycom- 
ing counties  in  Pennsylvania,  or  moved  with  the  Pennsylvania  emigrants 
to  North  Carolina,  while  still  later  descendants  will  be  taken  up  in  the  his- 
tory of  Quaker  settlements  in  Ohio  and  Indiana.  See  The  Doane  Family^ 
5a-55,  78,  79,  123. 
*  See  map  opposite. 


72  Longitude  West  70  from  Greenwich 


New  England 

Settlement. 

1713 


CNCRSj^.    BOSTON 


ivBR^Air 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  71 

of  culture  and  refinement  which  bore  some  Hkeness  to 
that  of  the  mother  country^ —  out  on  the  frontier  hfe  was 
still  rude  and  hard.  The  incoming  English  settlers  who 
arrived  from  time  to  time  seem  to  have  settled  in  the 
older  towns,  and  there  their  influence  would  be  felt. 
But  the  pioneer  was  most  frequently  the  son  of  a  pion- 
eer, his  wife  the  daughter  of  another,  and  together  they 
began  a  new  home  where  land  was  cheap  and  plenty, 
and  money  went  farther  than  it  did  on  the  coast.  An 
instance  of  the  economic  development  of  the  coast  as 
contrasted  with  the  interior  is  the  increasing  diversity 
of  occupation  in  the  former  as  over  against  the  latter. 
Under  the  fostering  care  of  the  Navigation  Acts  there 
had  developed  a  great  increase  of  intercourse  between 
the  Old  World  and  the  New,  and  such  interests  as  those 
of  shipping,  along  with  the  kindred  ones  of  trade  and 
commerce,  had  grown  enormously.  It  was  to  the  men  of 
the  coast  towns  that  these  opportunities  came,  for  they 
represented  the  moneyed  class,  whereas  the  pioneers  on 
the  frontier  usually  made  a  home  in  the  wilderness  with 
a  distinct  view  to  bettering  their  unsatisfactory  financial 
condition.  A  prosperous  traf&c  with  the  West  Indies 
had  sprung  up,  and  promised  rich  returns.  Shipbuilding 
became  one  of  the  most  important  industries  of  New 
England,  thus  rendering  the  colonists  still  more  inde- 
pendent of  the  mother  country  in  respect  to  all  features 
of  the  carrying  trade.  While  the  population  of  the  sea- 
board thus  became  on  the  economic  side  more  like  Eng- 
land, the  frontier  continued  to  be  rural,  engaged  in 
rural  occupations,  with  cattle-raising,  lumbering  and 
dairying  as  adjuncts  to  the  chief  industry,  —  farming. 


72  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Besides  the  more  evident  economic  differences,  the 
two  regions  represented  more  subtle  distinctions.  It  was 
on  the  frontier  that  men  from  the  various  colonies 
mingled,  and  while  they  held  in  common  the  stern  reli- 
gious views  and  educational  ideas  of  their  ancestors, 
these  were  tempered  by  contact  with  others  of  some- 
what different  cast;  so  that  while  fundamentally  the 
ideals  of  all  were  the  same,  —  all  were  striving 
toward  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  all  were  tenacious 
of  their  rights,  —  individualism  still  found  its  freest 
development  out  at  the  edge  of  civilization.  Conditions 
were  not  unlike  those  which  had  produced  the  first  emi- 
grations from  England,  —  the  radical  still  departed  for 
the  wilderness,  leaving  the  conservative  in  possession  of 
the  field.  The  church  quarrels  which  continued  to  be  a 
potent  factor  in  the  development  of  new  towns  had  been 
at  the  root  of  many  an  exodus  to  New  Jersey,  as  well 
as  to  the  unoccupied  regions  of  the  older  colonies.  Curi- 
ously enough,  however,  when  the  malcontents  found 
themselves  in  the  majority  instead  of  in  the  minority  (as 
they  had  been  before  their  removal),  they  frequently  be- 
came as  intolerant  as  their  comrades  had  been.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  often  grew  broader  minded,  as  was  the 
case  in  New  Jersey,  and  made  extraordinary  adaptations 
and  compromises.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  one  could 
expect  more  toleration  in  the  newer  communities  than 
he  was  apt  to  find  where  conditions  had  become  more 
crystallized.  In  spite  of  superficial  differences,  the  fun- 
damental institutions  of  the  town-meeting,  the  church, 
the  school,  —  all  these  the  pioneer  carried  to  his  new 
home,  and  the  region  so  recently  a  wilderness  took  on 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  73 

more  and  more  the  character  of  the  older  colony  towns. 
The  pioneer  of  Maine  and  of  western  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  who  had  rebuilt  his  log  house  three  or 
four  times,  and  who  tilled  his  field  with  a  gun  slung 
across  his  shoulders,  had  perforce  to  be  a  man  of  pur- 
pose and  of  perseverance,  with  little  time  for  anything 
save  the  business  of  getting  a  living  and  rearing  a  fam- 
ily of  children.  Yet  to  his  descendants  he  gave  a  heri- 
tage of  traditions  of  democracy,  religion,  and  education ; 
when  they  reached  man's  estate,  they  did  as  their  father 
had  done,  —  took  up  a  search  for  a  new  home  where 
land  was  cheaper  than  in  the  older  settlement,^  and 
when  that  home  was  found,  they  made  it  their  business 
to  see  the  town-meeting,  the  church,  and  the  school 
established  as  their  fathers  had  founded  them.  Whether 
the  pioneer  dwelt  on  the  Maine  rivers,  in  the  wilds  of 
New  Hampshire,  beyond  the  Connecticut  River,  in  New 
Jersey,  or  in  South  Carolina,  his  traditions  and  his  gen- 
eral character  were  the  same.  The  differences  were  but 
superficial,  and  he  was  after  all  a  New  Englander  grown 
more  independent  and  probably  more  tolerant  under  his 
new  environment ;  —  but  not  even  many  removes  from 
the  Englishman  of  his  day. 

*  Another  reason  is  given  in  a  letter  of  Isaac  Addington  to  Fitz-John 
Winthrop  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  6th  ser.,  iii,  338  ;  it  is  dated  Boston, 
July  1,  1706.  "  His  Excellency  [Governor  of  Massachusetts]  thinks  he 
can  tell  where  one  hundred  Massachusetts  men  are  gone  into  Connecticut 
Colony  to  save  themselves  from  taxes  and  service  in  the  present  war." 


74  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

The  general  works  cited  at  the  close  of  the  second  chapter  are  of  value 
for  the  period  1660-1713. 

For  Massachusetts,  many  of  the  books  mentioned  earlier  prove  useful 
for  this  chapter.  Such  histories  as  that  of  Worcester  County  (D.  H.  Hurd, 
compiler)  furnished  the  only  available  material  for  certain  smaller  towns, 
and  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  Collections  must  be  called  into 
constant  requisition.  Henry  D.  Nourse's  History  of  Harvard^  Massachu- 
setts  (Harvard,  1894),  is  one  of  the  better  class  of  local  histories. 

There  are  a  few  excellent  local  histories  for  Connecticut  towns  planted 
in  this  period,  which  supplement  admirably  the  more  general  works  such 
as  Trumbull's.  Miss  F.  M.  Caulkins's  History  of  New  London  (New  Lon- 
don, 1852)  and  History  of  Norwich  are  illustrations,  as  are  William  Coth- 
ren's  History  of  Ancient  Woodbury^  Connecticut  (3  vols.),  and  Miss  E.  D. 
Larned's  History  of  Windham  County  (2  vols.).  Dr.  Charles  H.  S.  Davis's 
History  of  Wallingford  (Meriden,  1870)  contains  the  compact  under  which 
Wallingford  was  settled.  Dr.  C.  W.  Bowen's  Woodstock  is  the  work  of  a 
scholar.  Dr.  Franklin  B.  Dexter  has  published  in  compact  form  the  data 
concerning  the  early  years  of  Yale  College  in  his  Sketch  of  the  History  of 
Yale  University  (New  York,  1887). 

For  Rhode  Island  the  following  local  histories,  —  C.  C.  Beaman,  His- 
torical Sketch  of  the  Town  of  Scituate,  R.  I.  (1877)  ;  Rev.  Frederic  Deni- 
son's  Westerly  {Rhode  Island)  and  its  Witnesses,  1626-1876  ;  and  D.  H. 
Greene's  History  of  the  Town  of  East  Greenwich  and  Adjacent  Territory 
(from  1677  to  1877)  proved  helpful. 

Barber  and  Howe's  Historical  Collections:  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey 
(New  York,  1846)  is  a  good  starting-point  for  the  emigration  to  that  ter- 
ritory. William  A.  Whitehead's  East  Jersey  under  the  Proprietary  Gov- 
ernments is  still  a  standard  work  for  the  field  it  covers.  Joseph  Atkinson's 
History  of  Newark,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  E.  F.  Hatfield's  History  of  Elizabeth 
(including  the  early  history  of  Union  County)  are  excellent,  as  is  L.  T. 
Stevens's  History  of  Cape  May  County.  Joseph  F.  Tuttle  read  a  paper 
before  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society  in  May,  1869,  on  Annals  of 
Morris  County,  which  is  published  in  pamphlet  form.  The  Proceedings  of 
the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society  contain  some  interesting  material.  But 
the  material  for  the  study  of  New  Jersey  local  history  shows  that  much 
labor  must  be  expended  before  a  final  piece  of  work  can  be  done  which 
shall  interpret  its  history  along  the  lines  attempted  in  this  study. 


INFLUENCE  OF  INDIAN  WARFARE  75 

The  Collections  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society  (1st  ser.,  6  vols., 
1811-1830)  contain  in  volume  i  the  "Duke's  Laws."  Daniel  Denton's 
Brief  Description  of  New  York  (London,  1670,  but  reprinted  1902)  is  a 
valuable,  contemporary  account  of  that  colony  as  it  was  at  the  time  the 
English  wrested  it  from  the  Dutch. 

The  early  charters,  such  as  those  of  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  the 
Massachusetts  charter  of  1692,  and  the  New  Jersey  grant  and  first  code 
of  laws  will  be  found  in  carefully  compiled  form  in  Dr.  William  Mac- 
donald's  Select  Charters  and  Other  Documents  Illustrative  of  American  His- 
tory, 1606-1775.  Each  document  is  preceded  by  a  brief  account  of  its 
history,  and  a  well-selected  bibliography. 

Such  admirably  compiled  histories  as  that  of  The  Doane  Family  (by  A. 
A.  Doane,  Boston,  1902)  prove  most  valuable  in  giving  items  not  other- 
wise available  as  to  the  emigrations  of  a  family  in  whom  the  pioneering 
instinct  was  strongly  developed. 

For  the  Dorchester  (South  Carolina)  colony,  see  Edward  McCrady, 
History  of  South  Carolina  under  the  Proprietary  Government.  1670-1719 
(3  vols.,  New  York,  1897),  and  the  History  of .  .  .  Dorchester,  Massachusetts, 
published  by  the  Antiquarian  and  Historical  Society  of  that  town  in  1859. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS 
1713-1754 

For  forty  years  almost  ceaseless  warfare  had  been  waged 
along  the  New  England  frontier.  The  outposts  of  the 
colonies  had  seen  a  succession  of  Indian  raids,  and  the 
history  of  many  a  village  was  one  of  alternate  destruc- 
tion and  replanting.  Even  the  hardiest  pioneer  shrank 
from  the  prospect  of  carving  a  new  home  out  of  the  for- 
ests on  the  outskirts  of  any  colony ;  for  thp  future  was 
reasonably  certain  to  bring  disaster,  and  he  and  his  fam- 
ily might  think  themselves  fortunate  if  they  escaped 
with  their  lives.  But  the  forty  years  had  seen  a  con- 
stantly increasing  density  of  population,  and  with  the 
Peace  of  Utrecht  there  came  an  outpouring  of  settlers 
bound  for  the  frontier,  where  there  was  no  danger  of 
being  crowded  by  one's  neighbors. 

The  treaty  of  Utrecht  began  a  period  of  comparative 
peace  which  lasted  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century.^ 
Indian  raids  had  been  common  since  King  Philip's 
War ;  Ryswick  had  been  an  unsatisfactory  settlement, 
a  temporary  expedient.  Utrecht  marked  the  end  of  act- 
ive hostility,  though  the  pioneers  on  the  edge  of  the 
wilderness  were  sometimes  threatened  by  the  Indian 

^  The  series  of  campaigns  against  the  Indians  of  northern  and  eastern 
Maine  known  as  Lovewell's  War,  covering  the  period  1722-25,  affected 
settlement  chiefly  in  Maine,  and  consequently  is  not  taken  up  in  detail 
in  this  study.  See  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  111-151. 


FORTY  YEAES  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      77 

bands  which  roved  through  the  nearby  forests.  By  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  England  had  come  into  possession 
of  Nova  Scotia,  while  to  the  northwest  the  Iroquois  had 
been  acknowledged  to  be  tributary  to  the  British  nation. 
The  period  of  peace  following  the  war  of  1713  was  of 
immense  importance  to  the  colonists ;  it  made  possible 
the  expansion  of  trade,  commerce,  and  settlement ;  it 
gave  opportunity  for  the  quiet  development  of  colonial 
institutions;  it  saw  the  foundations  laid  upon  which 
New  England,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  colonies, 
built  a  social,  political,  and  economic  fabric  which  was 
to  withstand  the  assaults  of  a  later  time ;  and  it  furnished 
the  materials  for  the  making  of  a  new  nation  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  Settlements  were  planted  to  the 
west  and  north,  and  were  sufficiently  peopled,  so  that 
when  King  George's  War  again  let  loose  bands  of  In- 
dians upon  the  frontier  the  struggle  was  but  an  episode, 
a  time  of  apprenticeship  for  the  greater  conflict  to  fol- 
low. 

After  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  then,  the  expansion  of 
colonial  settlements  was  resumed.  A  lesson  had  been 
learned  from  the  years  of  warfare  just  preceding  the 
peace,  years  in  which  isolated  villages  had  been  destroyed 
time  and  again ;  and  the  Massachusetts  grants  of  the 
next  few  years  contain  provisions  for  larger  groups  of 
settlers  on  a  new  tract  than  had  hitherto  been  the  case. 
The  conditions  in  Worcester  County  are  typical  of 
others.  In  the  case  of  Rutland  *  the  purchase  made  from 

1  The  grant  was  made  in  1715.  Families  were  gathered  from  Boston, 
Concord,  Lexington,  Sudbury,  Marlborough,  Framingham,  Lancaster,  and 
Brookfield,  with  a  few  from  Ireland.  See  C.  R.  Bartlett,  "Rutland,"  in 
History  of  Worcester  County^  ii,  1287-1288. 


78       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  Indians  in  1686  was  confirmed  by  the  General  Court 
in  1713,  on  condition  that  within  seven  years  sixty  fami- 
lies should  be  planted  there  ;  the  condition  was  fulfilled, 
and  the  town  was  incorporated.  In  the  Leicester  grant 
the  number  of  families  was  to  be  fifty,  with  the  provi- 
sion that  a  portion  of  the  tract  allotted  be  reserved  for  a 
church  and  a  school ;  otherwise  the  conditions  were  like 
those  of  Kutland ;  but  the  progress  of  Leicester  was  very 
slow,  because  of  the  isolation  of  the  settlers.  Even  so 
large  a  number  as  fifty  seemed  defenseless  when  no 
neighbors  could  be  called  in  at  a  crisis.  Lunenburg  was 
filled  up  by  Scotch-Irish  families,  who  moved  in  beside 
settlers  from  other  New  England  towns.^  Sturbridge  is 
another  Worcester  County  town.  In  1714  a  few  grants 
of  land  were  made  here ;  a  little  later  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  lay  out  the  town  ;  and  in  1729  the  grant 
was  made  on  the  terms  which  had  become  usual,  —  a  cer- 
tain number  of  families  had  to  be  established  within  a 
definite  time.  At  least  twelve  of  the  grantees  became  set- 
tlers :  many  others  sent  their  children  and  grandchildren. 
Since  nearly  all  the  proprietors  and  settlers  were  from 
Medfield,  the  town  was  called  New  Medfield  until  its 
incorporation.^  Almost  the  whole  of  Worcester  County 
was  taken  up  by  home-seekers ;  the  greater  part  of  it  had 
been  passed  by  previously  because  of  its  exposed  situa- 
tion, and  because  its  uneven  surface  was  less  attractive 
to  home-seekers  than  the  more  level  lands  of  the  Con- 

*  E.  S.  Stearns,  "  Lunenburg,"  in  Hist,  of  Worcester  County,  i,  761, 
762  ;  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Mass.,  582.  Other  Scotch-Irish,  who  came  at 
this  time,  settled  Palmer,  Coleraine,  Hopkinton,  Blandford,  and  Pelham. 

'  L.  B.  Chase,  "  Sturbridge,"  in  ibid.,  i,  105-107. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      79 

necticut  valley.  The  intervale  lands  to  the  west  being 
well  filled,  newcomers  stopped  midway  and  took  up  the 
less  desirable  Worcester  County  lands. 

Nor  was  the  pressure  for  new  lands  confined  to  the 
seaboard.  The  soil  along  both  sides  of  the  Connecticut 
was  all  occupied,  and  yet  lands  lay  vacant  to  the  west, 
between  the  older  towns  and  the  Hudson  River.  In  1722 
Joseph  Parson  and  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  other 
persons  of  Hampshire  County  in  Massachusetts  petitioned 
the  General  Court  for  two  townships  on  the  Housatonic 
River.  Into  one  of  these,  Sheffield,  in  accordance  with 
the  provisions  laid  down  by  the  General  Court,  settlers 
poured  to  the  number  of  sixty  families,  mostly  from 
Westfield,  in  the  seven  years  preceding  the  first  town- 
meeting  in  1733.  South  Hadley  and  Granby  were  set- 
tled from  Hadley.  Amherst  had  among  its  pioneers 
families  from  Hadley,  Hatfield,  Deerfield,  and  North- 
ampton, many  of  whom  seem  to  have  been  young,  un- 
married men.  Poor  soil  had  prevented  the  settlement  of 
Ware,  but  between  1729,  when  the  first  family  moved 
in  from  Brookfield  and  "  squatted  "  there,  and  1742, 
when  the  settlers  petitioned  for  incorporation,  thirty- 
three  families  had  established  themselves  on  the  tract.* 

Berkshire  County,  on  the  border  between  Massachu- 
setts and  New  York,  attracted  pioneers  from  both  direc- 
tions, and  in  Egremont  and  Great  Barrington,  New  Eng- 
landers  and  Dutch  families  mingled.  The  proprietors  of 

*  Hyde,  TFare,  12-14.  To  Wales  went  settlers  from  Salem,  Palmer,  and 
Grafton,  in  Massachusetts ;  from  Windham,  Tolland,  Hampton,  and 
Union,  in  Connecticut.  The  settlers  organized  a  Baptist  church  of  thirty 
members  within  six  years  of  their  arrival.  See  Holland,  West.  Mass..,  ii, 
140. 


80       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

these  western  towns  were  usually  Massachusetts  men,  but 
most  o£  the  settlers  came  up  from  Connecticut,  follow- 
ing the  rich  intervale  lands  of  the  Housatonic.  The  sev- 
enty-two proprietors  of  New  Marlborough  were  mainly 
Marlborough  (Massachusetts)  men.  They  represent  the 
speculator  element,  for  very  few  of  them  ever  lived  in 
New  Marlborough ;  the  settlers  came  from  Canterbury 
and  Suffield,  Connecticut,  Northampton  and  Dedham  in 
Massachusetts/  Connecticut  settlers  founded  Alford. 
The  proprietors  of  Sandisfield  were  Worcester  County 
men ;  the  settlers  were  from  the  Connecticut  towns  of 
Enfield  and  Wethersfield,  and  from  Cape  Cod  towns.^ 
To  Lenox  went  pioneers  from  West  Hartford  and  Wall- 
ingford,  Connecticut;  while  Otis  settlers  represented 
Enfield,  Granville,  Suffield,  Woodstock,  and  Hebron, 
though  the  proprietors  were  from  Tyringham  (Massa- 
chusetts).^ Williamstown  was  begun  by  Connecticut  fam- 
ilies, mingling  with  others  from  Northampton  and  Hat- 
field ;  *  Wethersfield  men  founded  Pittsfield.^  One  might 
reasonably  expect  to  find  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
what  is  actually  the  case,  —  that  western  Massachusetts 
supplied  the  most  radical  element  in  the  new  state.  Not 
only  had  the  western  part  been  settled  last,  and  there- 
fore was  scarcely  beyond  the  pioneering  stage  of  its  his- 
tory, but  its  inhabitants  were  drawn  largely  from  an- 

1  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Mass.,  83. 

*  Holland,  West.  Mass.,  ii,  569-671. 
'  Holland,  ibid.,  ii,  640. 

*  Perry,  Origins  of  Williamstovm,  384-386 ;  Holland,  West.  Mass.,  ii, 
609,  610. 

6  Holland,  ibid.,  i,  186  ;  ibid.,  ii,  548,  549;  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Mass., 
87. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      81 

other  colony  (Connecticut),  and  therefore  had  no  special 
reverence  for  the  conservatism  of  the  Massachusetts 
coast  towns.  Built  up  by  men  with  sufficient  initiative 
to  move  to  the  most  exposed  part  of  the  colony,  the 
border  counties  developed  a  most  independent  attitude 
towards  England  in  the  early  part  of  the  Revolution, 
and  towards  the  conservative  seaboard  while  the  new 
state  was  forming. 

A  new  feature  entered  into  the  movement  for  expan- 
sion at  this  time,  and  colored  more  or  less  the  character 
of  the  whole  period  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  French 
and  Indian  War.  For  the  first  time  speculation  in  lands 
became  common.  With  the  economic,  social,  and  indus- 
trial changes  incident  to  a  century  of  growth  and  devel- 
opment, there  had  come  not  only  the  accumulation  of 
wealth,  but  the  necessity  for  its  investment.  The  fishing 
and  coasting  trade  occupied  many  persons  ;  ordinary 
mercantile  pursuits  provided  occupations  for  more ;  but 
the  demand  for  lands  which  came  with  the  Peace  of 
Utrecht  ofPered  an  outlet  for  the  speculative  tendencies 
of  others,  and  many  young  men  became  proprietors, 
making  a  business  of  buying  lands  and  selling  them  at 
a  higher  figure  to  actual  settlers.  Such  speculations  in 
land  became  an  increasingly  significant  and  important 
feature  of  the  process  of  expansion.  England  was  pass- 
ing through  a  period  of  speculative  craze  which  was  to 
find  its  climax  in  the  wild  schemes  of  1720,  —  such  as 
the  gigantic  "bubbles"  of  John  Law,  and  other  less 
well-known  "  promoters  "  of  the  day.  The  colonies  felt 
the  wave  which  was  sweeping  over  the  mother  country, 
although  to  a  far  less  degree,  since  the  number  of  en- 


82       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

terprises  to  be  affected  was  very  small,  and  the  new 
country  had  neither  capital  nor  capitalists  enough  for 
the  movement  to  be  of  any  great  importance. 

The  Massachusetts  speculations  are  the  most  import- 
ant, and  are  probably  typical  of  less  extensive  ones  in 
the  other  colonies.  The  older  and  more  prosperous 
towns,  like  Boston  and  Salem,  where  there  was  not  only 
more  experience  in  business  life  but  also  more  capital 
free  for  investment,  showed  a  marked  disposition  to  buy 
wild  lands  in  new  towns,  and  whatever  could  be  pur- 
chased of  the  commons  in  the  old  ones.^  Mr.  Jeremiah 
Dummer,  an  English  agent,  apparently  imbued  with  the 
speculative  mania  then  raging  in  England,  tried  to  get 
up  a  "  bubble "  in  waste  lands  in  1720,  "  but  had  not 
time  for  any  great  success."^  The  first  extensive  specu- 
lation came  in  1727.  The  Massachusetts  government 
had  been  very  prudent  before  that  time  in  the  granting 
of  territory,  and  lands  had  been  distributed  purely  for 
the  sake  of  settlement.  As  a  usual  thing  new  grants  had 
adjoined  old  ones,  making  the  towns  reasonably  com- 
pact, both  as  a  defense  against  Indians,  and  in  order 
that  advantages  of  church  and  schools  might  be  com- 
mon to  all.  Now  plans  were  suddenly  laid  for  large 
grants  of  new  lands  along  the  border  between  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire.  Undoubtedly,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  William  Dummer,  who  was  most  instrumental 
in  getting  the  General  Court  to  appoint  committees  and 
make  grants,  had  in  mind  strengthening  the  claim  of 
Massachusetts  to  the  disputed  lands  of  her  northern 

*  Weeden,  Econ.  and  Soc.  Hist,  of  New  Eng.,  ii,  613. 
'Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  Mass. ^  ii,  221,  n. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      83 

neighbor,  as  well  as  a  plan  which  should  aid  in  the 
effort  for  relieving  the  pressure  of  an  increasing  popu- 
lation in  the  seaboard  towns.  Nine  townships  were 
granted  in  1727  to  the  heirs  of  the  militia  or  soldiers 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  Canadian  expedition  of  1690. 
These  tracts,  each  six  miles  square,  ran  from  the  Merri- 
mac  River  across  thirty-five  miles  of  unoccupied  land,  to 
the  Connecticut  River,  in  order  to  provide  a  barrier 
against  Indians.  They  formed  a  double  line  of  varying 
value  for  cultivation,  some  being  rocky  and  moun- 
tainous, and  hence  slowly  settled,  while  others  containing 
good  land  were  quickly  occupied.^  In  June,  1728,  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  appointed  a  committee 
(five  in  number)  to  lay  out  in  some  of  the  vacant  lands 
of  the  Maine  district  two  tracts  of  land  in  townships  six 
miles  square.  These  were  granted  to  officers  and  soldiers 
(or  their  heirs)  who  had  fought  in  the  Narragansett 
War  of  1675;  The  report  of  the  committee  having  been 
accepted,  five  other  townships  were  laid  out  in  1732, 
on  condition  that  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  grantees 
of  each  township  should  assemble  within  two  months 
and  arrange  the  preliminaries  of  settlement.  Further- 
more, sixty  families  must  be  settled  in  each  township, 
with  an  orthodox  minister,  within  seven  years.  These 
townships  lay  in  a  line  from  the  Saco  and  Presump- 
scot  rivers  in  Maine,  across  into  New  Hampshire.  The 
grantees  included  men  from  about  all  the  towns  that 

*  Ashburnham  (called  Dorchester  Canada,  because  most  of  the  grantees 
were  Dorchester  men)  was  settled  in  1735-36  ;  it  was  deserted  from  1744 
to  1750,  and  had  a  precarious  existence  till  1759.  See  E.  S.  Stearns, 
"  Ashburnham,"  in  Hist,  of  Worcester  Co.,  i,  194. 


84  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

"were  able  to  send  soldiers  in  1675  to  the  defense  of  the 
colonies,  and  were  grouped  somewhat  roughly  by  neigh- 
borhoods/ In  1736-38,  twenty-eight  townships  (each 
six  miles  square)  were  laid  out  between  the  Connecticut 
and  Merrimac  rivers,  in  accordance  with  the  surveys 
which  the  General  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  had 
caused  to  be  made  in  response  to  the  very  numerous 
petitions  for  land  which  had  been  laid  before  them.^ 
The  speculators  proved  too  grasping;  because  of  the 
great  number  of  grants  made,  it  was  impossible  to  ful- 
fill the  conditions  required  by  the  General  Court.  Nei- 
ther were  there  enough  people  in  Massachusetts  who 
were  willing  to  move  into  so  unpopular  a  district,  nor 
could  the  grantees  induce  settlers  to  come  from  Eng- 

^  Alass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  3d  ser.,  ii,  274,  275.  For  instance,  Narragansett 
No.  7  (New  Gorbam,  Maine)  was  granted  to  men  of  Barnstable,  Yar- 
moutb,  Eastbam,  Sandwicb,  Plymoutb,  Tisbury,  Abingdon,  Duxbury,  and 
Scituate  ;  nearly  every  Cape  Cod  town  sent  settlers  to  it  ultimately.  See 
ibid.f  279  ;  and  Pierce,  Gorham,  36. 

Buxton  (Narragunsett  No.  1)  was  granted  to  inhabitants  of  Ipswich, 
Newbury,  Hampton,  Berwick,  and  towns  surrounding  these.  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  3d  ser.,  ii,  276. 

^  Hall's  Eastern  Vermont,  58.  The  terms  of  the  grants  made  here  are 
interesting.  Each  settler  had  to  give  bonds  in  the  sum  of  £40  as  security 
for  performing  the  conditions  imposed.  Those  who  had  not  received  grants 
for  the  last  seven  years  were  given  the  preference,  but  in  case  not  enough 
of  these  applied,  the  next  choice  fell  upon  those  who  had  fulfilled  condi- 
tions elsewhere.  On  every  lot  there  must  be  built  a  house  eighteen  by 
eighteen  feet,  with  at  least  seven  feet  stud  ;  five  acres  had  to  be  fenced 
in  and  broken  up  for  ploughing  ;  and  occupancy  must  take  place  within 
three  years.  A  meeting-house  had  to  be  built,  and  a  minister  settled.  If 
these  conditions  were  not  met,  the  land  was  forfeited.  As  usual,  there 
were  sixty  settlers'  rights,  one  right  for  the  first  minister,  and  one  for  a 
school ;  but  the  sixty-third  right  went  to  the  second  minister  rather  than 
to  the  ministry,  as  was  naturally  the  case.  Each  right  was  divided  into  a 
houselot  and  an  intervale  lot. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      85 

land,  though  they  evidently  tried  to  do  so.*  Still  the 
growth  of  Massachusetts  in  those  forty  years  is  remark- 
able. In  1748  one  hundred  and  forty  towns  had  been 
incorporated  since  the  colony's  founding,  and  of  these 
sixty-eight  had  received  charters  since  1692.^  There  was 
little  land  left  for  new  towns  east  of  the  Connecticut 
Kiver;  about  one  third  west  of  it  had  been  taken  up. 
The  pressure  for  new  lands  must  very  evidently  lead  to 
emigration  outside  the  boundaries  of  the  colony,  and 
the  frontier  must  be  pushed  out  into  the  wilderness  to 
the  north  and  west  in  order  to  furnish  homes  to  those 
who  wished  to  establish  themselves  on  farms  of  their 
own,  but  were  too  poor  to  pay  for  higher-priced  lands 
lying  about  the  older  towns. 

The  acquisition  of  Maine  by  Massachusetts  in  1677 
had  placed  those  lands  at  the  disposal  of  the  General 
Court  of  the  Bay  Colony,  and  one  would  naturally  look 
for  emigration  into  that  territory.  At  the  close  of  Queen 
Anne's  War  more  than  one  hundred  miles  of  the  Maine 
coast  lay  unpeopled  and  desolate.  When  the  old  towns 
were  revived,  it  was  thought  advisable  that  for  the  safety 
of  the  inhabitants  no  less  than  twenty  or  thirty  families 
should  go  at  the  same  time  and  settle  compactly  near 
the  seaside  on  lots  of  three  or  four  acres,  with  outlying 
meadows  about  them.  Upon  these  conditions  the  Gen- 
eral Court  authorized  the  resettlement  of  Saco,  Falmouth, 

1  Hutchinson,  H^isf.  of  Mass.,  ii,  299,  300.  New  Braintree  shows  how  the 
colony  paid  its  debts  for  public  services  in  land,  —  the  commodity  of  which 
at  this  time  it  had  most.  The  tract  was  granted  to  certain  persons  of 
Braiutree  for  services  rendered,  and  was  long  known  as  Braintree  Farms. 
See  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Mass.,  588. 

2 Barry,  Mass.,  ii,  163.  Also  footnote  on  the  same  page. 


86  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  other  towns/  Portland,  Bath,  and  many  other  vil- 
lages whose  territory  had  lain  waste  for  forty  years  were 
now  repeopled  by  the  former  inhabitants,  or  by  their 
children,  who  returned  to  lay  claim  to  their  former 
homes.  None  grew  rapidly :  Bristol  contained  only  a  few 
people  in  1720 ;  in  that  year  Scarborough  held  its  first 
town-meeting ;  and  Portland  contained  in  1726  but  four 
hundred  people,  the  same  population  it  had  numbered 
fifty-one  years  before ;  Cape  Elizabeth  had  no  church 
for  fifteen  years  after  its  revival.  Between  1722  and 
1725  the  Indians  of  northern  and  eastern  Maine  and  of 
Nova  Scotia,  urged  on  by  emissaries  of  the  French  gov- 
ernment and  by  French  sympathizers  in  the  territory  to 
the  east  so  recently  acquired  by  the  English,  descended 
again  and  again  upon  the  reestabhshed  settlements. 
Not  until  Captain  John  Lovewell  (or  Lovel)  of  Dun- 
stable, Massachusetts,  took  the  field  with  a  small  body 
of  volunteers  did  the  Indians  meet  with  any  effectual 
opposition.  After  Lovewell's  death  in  the  decisive  fight 
of  the  war,  peace  was  concluded  between  representatives 
of  the  Indians  and  the  Massachusetts  General  Court, 
ratified  a  little  later  by  a  larger  body  of  Indians  at  Fal- 
mouth on  the  Maine  coast.  In  spite  of  the  treaty,  it  was 
still  evident  that  only  dire  necessity  could  induce  men 
to  remove  into  the  territory  east  of  New  Hampshire ; 
few  towns  were  planted,  and  these  grew  but  slowly,  some 
even  being  burned  once  before  they  were  permanently 
established.  Of  the  Narragansett  townships  laid  out  by 
Massachusetts,  Gorham  was  settled  in  1736,  but  the 

*  Williamson,  MainCt  ii,  80,  81.    No  one  was  allowed  to  undertake  the 
resettlement  of  a  town  without  a  license  from  the  governor  and  council. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS  87 

grantees  of  Buxton  left  their  tract  vacant  until  1748, 
when  King  George's  War  was  over.  Topsham  was  planted 
by  three  families  in  1718 ;  it  was  destroyed  four  years 
later,  and  remained  a  waste  for  some  time;  in  1750 
its  inhabitants  numbered  eighteen  families,  —  mostly 
Scotch-Irish,  who  have  ever  been  Indian  fighters  and 
hence  good  stock  for  the  frontier.  New  Gloucester, 
which  took  its  pioneers  and  its  name  from  the  Massa- 
chusetts town,  was  able  to  show  but  nineteen  frame 
houses  after  eight  years  of  hardship;  these  were  de- 
stroyed, and  for  twelve  years  the  land  lay  desolate. 
Windham  (called  New  Marblehead  in  its  early  days) 
had  sixty  proprietors  who  were  Marblehead  men,  as 
were  its  first  settlers ;  it  had  a  long  struggle  before  its 
growth  was  assured.^  Maine  had  a  severe  struggle  for 
existence  for  over  a  century  after  the  first  fishing- 

1  Williamson,  Maine^  ii,  365  ;  also  ihid.^  284.  Warren  and  Thomas- 
ton  were  Scotch-Irish  towns  like  Topsham  ;  Thomaston  was  begun  by 
twenty-seven  families  who  came  together;  they  were  later  joined  by  a 
company  of  German  immigrants.  Compare  Hanna,  Scotch-Irish  in  America^ 
ii,  25,  with  Williamson,  ii,  238. 

Waldoborough,  settled  in  1740,  was  depopulated  during  King  George's 
War,  but  resettled  immediately  afterward.  It  had  been  at  first  a  Scotch- 
Irish  town  ;  in  1752-53  fifteen  hundred  Germans  came  in,  but  later  re- 
moved to  southwest  Carolina  because  of  threatening  lawsuits  regard- 
ing land-titles.  Seeilfame  Hist.  Soc.  Collf  v,  403,  404  ;  also  Coolidge  and 
Mansfield,  336. 

Most  of  the  towns  laid  out  after  1733  had  to  have,  as  conditions  of  the 
g^nt,  sixty  actual  settlers,  each  of  whom  must  clear  from  five  to  eight 
acres  for  mowing  and  tillage,  build  a  house  at  least  eighteen  feet  square, 
with  seven-foot  posts.  The  families  must  together  build  a  meeting-house 
within  five  or  six  years,  settle  a  minister,  and  support  him.  Usually  three 
lots  were  reserved  for  the  ministry,  schools,  and  the  first  minister  ;  later  a 
fourth  one  for  the  "  future  disposition  of  government."  See  Williamson, 
Maine,  ii,  180. 


88  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

villages  were  planted  on  her  shores  in  1623.  There  was 
not  in  1720  a  house  between  Berwick  and  Canada  to  the 
north,  nor  between  Georgetown  and  Annapolis  Royal 
in  Nova  Scotia,  save  a  single  fish-cabin  on  Damariscove 
Island/  Even  the  invitation  of  Governor  Dunbar,  who 
laid  out  three  towns  in  his  territory  of  Sagadahoc 
and  asked  settlers  to  come,  could  only  induce  fifty  or 
sixty  to  make  homes  there.  The  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  Massachusetts  stated  that  the  two  obstacles  —  and 
he  considered  them  ^Hhe  principal  and  perhaps  only 
material "  ones  —  which  kept  settlers  away  from  Maine, 
were  the  "exposed  situation  to  the  Indian  enemy  in 
case  of  rupture,"  and  the  great  disputes  over  titles,  be- 
cause of  overlapping  grants  and  consequent  claims.^ 

The  history  of  New  Hampshire  is  quite  different.  In 
1716  there  were  perhaps  nine  thousand  persons  in  the 
colony,  settlements  being  confined  almost  entirely  to  a 
radius  of  fifteen  miles  about  the  Piscataqua  River.  The 
first  large  town  planted  was  Londonderry,  to  which  there 
came,  in  1719,  fifty  families,  with  ministers,  from  Lon- 
donderry, Ireland.^  AJbout  the  same  year  the  inhabitants 
of  the  older  towns  began  to  look  out  for  new  lands  for 
their  children,  and  in  1721  a  company  of  nearly  one 

*  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  77,  n. ;  also  on  97  (from  Commissioner's  Re- 
port, 1811),  testimony  of  P.  Rogers,  taken  in  1773. 

2  Cited  in  Williamson,  ii,  289.  The  speech  was  made  June  12, 1753,  to 
the  General  Court.  Pierce  (Hist,  of  Gorham,  35)  thinks  the  population  of 
Maine  in  1736  could  not  have  been  more  than  seven  thousand. 

3  Bedford  was  founded  in  1737  from  this  same  Londonderry,  and  was 
the  first  of  ten  towns  in  New  Hampshire  planted  by  these  Scotch-Irish 
emigrants.  Hanna,  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  ii,  18.  Hanna  says  that  Lon- 
donderry was  also  the  mother  of  two  Vermont  towns  and  one  in  Penn- 
sylvania. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS   89 

hundred  made  up  from  Portsmouth,  Exeter,  and  Haver- 
hill, petitioned  for  a  grant  of  land  north  of  Londonderry. 
Immediately,  petitions  were  filed  by  persons  from  other 
towns  for  lands  contiguous  to  those  asked  for  in  the  first 
petition.  The  governor  and  council  suspended  the  peti- 
tions while  they  had  surveys  made  and  four  townships 
laid  out,  and  then  gave  permission  for  settlers  to  occupy 
them.  These  grants,  as  well  as  those  of  Massachusetts 
already  mentioned  (four  of  the  so-called  Narragansett 
townships),  were  filled  up  more  or  less  slowly,  most  of 
the  settlers  coming  from  the  nearby  Massachusetts 
towns.  Thirty-six  Haverhill  men  were  among  the  list 
of  one  hundred  admitted  settlers  of  Concord  in  1725 ; 
Billerica  and  Chelmsford  families  pushed  up  into  Litch- 
field and  Amherst,  while  others  from  Haverhill  planted 
Atkinson.  Eochester,  in  a  petition  to  the  General  Court 
relative  to  settling  a  minister,  gave  sixty  families  as  set- 
tlers in  the  seven  years  since  the  town  was  begun,  but 
reported  that  Indian  troubles  kept  others  away.  Pem- 
broke (Sun cook),  in  a  petition  for  a  guard,  recited  how 
peculiarly  liable  the  people  were  to  attacks  from  Indians, 
since  they  were  "eighteen  or  twenty  miles  from  any 
place"  :^  Canterbury  was  threatened  in  the  same  way,  as 
were  Bedford  and  Charlestown.  Swanzey  and  Hillsbor- 
ough were  actually  deserted  for  several  years,  as  was  New 
Boston,  upon  which  the  proprietors  had  spent  £2000  in 
"promoting  settlements  and  improvements,"  apparently 
with  little  success.^  The  number  of  frontier  towns  in 
1745  on  the  Connecticut  River  was  six ;  on  the  Merrimac 

1  Hammond,  Town  Papers,  xiii,  153, 154. 
*  See  Cogswell,  New  Boston,  44. 


90       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Eiver,  the  same  number ;  and  on  the  Piscataqua,  three.* 
The  story  of  the  New  Hampshire  frontier,  then,  was  a 
recital  of  hardship  and  often  of  danger,  yet  population 
had  perhaps  doubled,  and  a  map  shows  considerable  ex- 
pansion in  the  extent  of  settlement.^ 

The  first  pioneers  in  Vermont  came  during  this 
period,  and  five  settlements  were  begun  before  1754. 
Fort  Dummer  had  a  few  families  in  1724 ;  Vernon,  then 
a  part  of  Hinsdale  in  New  Hampshire,  drew  some  set- 
tlers from  Northampton  and  Northfield  about  1744-45 ; 
at  both  places  there  was  a  fort,  under  whose  shadows 
the  first  comers  made  shift  to  live.  A  few  clearings  had 
been  made  at  Westminster,  but  during  King  George's 
War  they  were  abandoned ;  when  the  settlement  was 
revived,  fifty  families  came  within  a  short  time,  mostly 
from  Northfield,  and  from  Ashford  and  Middletown.^ 

The  growth  of  Rhode  Island  consisted  not  in  forming 
new  settlements,  for  all  the  land  in  the  colony  was  al- 
ready allotted  to  the  various  towns ;  but  the  population 
was  rapidly  increasing  in  density.  The  figures  are  sig- 
nificant. From  7181  in  1708,  the  inhabitants  increased 
in  number  to  17,935  in  1730,  and  to  32,773  in  1748, 

1  Belknap,  ii,  238,  239. 

>  2  Barstow,  New  Hampshire^  186.  Barstow  thinks  it  had  doubled  since 
1731,  and  was  in  1749  thirty  thousand.   This  is  evidently  only  a  good  guess. 

8  Thompson,  Hist,  of  Vermont,  pt.  iii,  187  ;  Coolidgeand  Mansfield,  939. 
Dummerston  had  settlers  from  Worcester,  Sturbridge,  Petersham,  Boston, 
Rutland,  Cambridge,  and  Deerfield,  all  in  Massachusetts  ;  from  Pomfret, 
Connecticut ;  and  from  Winchester  in  New  Hampshire.  All  of  these  came 
between  1754  and  1777.  Rockingham  was  deserted  during  the  French 
and  Indian  War  ;  it  had  been  begun  in  1753.  See  D.  L.  Mansfield,  in  Ver- 
mont Hist.  Gazetteer,  y,  pt.  ii,  70-73,  24, 33,  41,  68.  Also  Hall,  Eastern 
Vermontf  101. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      91 

an  increase  of  over  three  hundred  per  cent  in  forty 
years.^  Five  counties  had  been  erected  by  1751,  and  old 
towns  like  Providence  and  Newport  were  divided  to 
incorporate  their  outlying  portions  into  new  towns.^ 
The  final  adjustment  of  the  boundary  between  Massa- 
chusetts and  Rhode  Island  had  given  to  the  latter  the 
five  towns  lying  below  East  Providence,  —  Bristol, 
Tiverton,  Little  Compton,  Warren,  and  Cumberland,  — 
thus  increasing  the  colony's  area  quite  materially,  and 
adding  about  four  thousand  souls  to  its  population.^ 

Connecticut  settlers  had  been  very  active  in  moving 
up  into  western  Massachusetts,  following  the  Housatonic 
valley  ;  they  were  also  going  from  all  parts  of  the  colony 
into  their  own  undivided  western  lands.  The  population 
had  been  ready  to  swarm  before  the  peace  of  Utrecht; 
when  the  war  was  definitely  ended,  and  the  lands  were 
clear  for  settlement,  the  movement  to  the  west  began. 
As  in  Massachusetts,  the  speculative  element  entered 
in,  and  grantees  became  proprietors,  selling  the  lands 
the  General  Court  had  allotted  to  those  who  were  will- 
ing to  become  actual  settlers.  Willington  will  illustrate 
the  movement.  A  few  families  settled  on  the  lands  here 

*  The  number  for  1730  includes  985  Indians  ;  for  1748,  1257  Indians. 
How  much  of  this  was  due  to  immigration  it  would  of  course  be  diffi- 
cult to  say.  Besides  this  increase,  settlers  may  have  left  to  live  in  Narra- 
gansett  townships,  whose  grantees  included  men  from  Rhode  Island  towns  ; 
but  it  is  probable  that  these  grantees  sold  their  shares,  since  no  settlers 
are  enumerated  from  that  colony.  See  for  figures,  R.  1.  Col.  Rec.y  iv,  69  ; 
V,  270  ;  Arnold,  Hist,  of  Rhode  Island,  ii,  101. 

2  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  iv,  442, 443.  Scituate,  Gloucester,  and  Smithfield  were 
set  off  from  Providence.  Middletown  was  incorporated  from  Newport. 
Ibid.,  V,  66.  Also  Arnold,  Hist,  of  Rhode  Island,  ii,  102. 

»  Greene,  Hist,  of  Rhode  Island,  168-169. 


92       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

about  1715-20;  in  the  latter  year  the  tract  (seven 
by  five  miles)  was  sold  by  the  colony  for  £510  to 
Koger  Wolcott  of  Windsor,  John  Burr  of  Fairfield, 
John  Riggs  of  Derby,  two  Milford  men,  and  two  from 
Hartford,  who  evidently  intended  the  purchase  to  be  a 
speculation.  These  proprietors  secured  ''  planters  "  from 
various  parts  of  New  England,  who  moved  to  the  land 
one  after  another,  in  no  organized  company ;  but  by 
1728  there  were  twenty-eight  ratable  polls  here,  and  a 
minister  was  settled.  Litchfield  affords  another  typical 
illustration.  In  1718  sixty  proprietors  (chiefly  from 
Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Lebanon)  bought  the  tract 
from  the  colony,  and  the  next  year  settlement  began. 
A  considerable  number  from  Hartford  and  Windsor 
went  to  the  new  town  in  1721,  with  an  organized  com- 
pany from  Lebanon  who  took  their  minister  with  them. 
There  were  sixty  "  rights  "  in  the  town,^  three  of  them 
for  the  church,  the  first  minister,  and  the  school.  A  few 
years  later,  when  the  town  was  threatened  by  Indians, 
thirty-two  able-bodied  men  were  sent  by  the  council  to 
defend  it.  An  order  followed  shortly  that  any  person  who 
had  left  Litchfield  and  did  not  return  within  a  month 
of  the  close  of  the  Assembly  for  that  year  must  either 
send  a  man  for  watch  and  ward,  or  forfeit  his  estate.^ 
Hartford  and  Windsor  patentees  received  in  1729  a 
grant  of  four  towns  in  the  northern  part  of  the  colony, 
—  Hartland,  Winchester,  Torrington,  Barkhamstead, 
Colebrook,  New  Hartford,  and  Harwinton.  The  last  two 

1  Conn.  Col.  Rec.y  vi,  126. 

2  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  vi,  126,  127,  471,  472,  500,  501.  Also  Barber,  Hist. 
Coll.  of  Conn.y  452-455.  Sixty-one  rights  in  the  town  were  sold  at  auction. 
Trumbull,  Connecticut^  ii,  89. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS   93 

were  settled  shortly  after  from  Hartford  and  Windsor ; 
Torrington  a  little  later  still  (from  Windsor),  but  Bark- 
hamstead  had  but  one  settler  till  1759/  Under  an  act  of 
1737  "  for  the  ordering  and  directing  the  sale  and  set- 
tlement of  all  the  townships  in  the  Western  lands/' 
seven  townships  were  laid  out  along  the  Housatonic, — 
five  on  the  eastern  side,  and  two  on  the  western.  These 
townships  were  then  sold  at  auction  in  various  towns  of 
the  colony ;  bonds  were  required  for  double  the  purchase 
price,  with  one  good  surety.  Six  of  the  seven  towns  ful- 
filled the  conditions  upon  which  they  had  been  granted, 
—  that  actual  settlers  be  obtained  who  would  build  a 
house  of  required  size  within  three  years  and  live  in  it 
for  three  years  afterward,  and  that  the  inhabitants  col- 
lectively have  within  a  specified  time  an  organized  church 
with  a  minister.^ 

Besides  the  settlement  of  these  new  towns,  old  com- 
munities were  splitting  up  into  new  parishes,  which  in 

1  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  ii,  99-102,  104,  105,  111,  113. 

2  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  viii,  134-137.  Salisbury  and  Norfolk  were  sold  at  Hart- 
ford, Goshen  and  Sharon  at  New  Haven,  Kent  (including  Warren)  at 
Windham,  Canaan  at  New  London,  and  Cornwall  at  Fairfield.  Goshen 
was  settled  by  families  not  only  from  New  Haven,  but  from  Wallingf ord, 
Farmington,  Litchfield,  Durham,  and  Simsbury  ;  Kent,  from  Colchester, 
Fairfield,  and  Norwalk  ;  Sharon,  from  Colchester  and  Lebanon  ;  Cornwall, 
chiefly  from  Plainfield,  but  also  from  Litchfield,  Colchester,  Norwalk,  Tol- 
land, and  Middlebury  (Massachusetts).  Barber,  463,  465,  467,  470,  481, 
490. 

Norfolk  was  forfeited  because  of  non-fulfillment  of  the  requirements, 
and  was  resold  at  Middletown  in  1754,  when  but  one  shareholder  claimed 
his  grant  on  the  ground  of  having  had  four  families  settled  there  before 
1774.  All  of  the  settlers  moved  into  these  towns  by  way  of  the  Housatonic 
or  by  way  of  New  York.  See  Barber,  481.  Also  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  ii, 
112.  The  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  these  townships  went  into  Connecticut's 
school  fund. 


94       THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

a  few  years  came  to  be  separate  towns.  In  1738  fourteen 
families,  who  lived  in  a  distant  part  of  the  town  of 
Woodbury,  petitioned  that  they  might  have  "  winter 
privileges  "  for  five  months  ;  they  complained  of  the  dis- 
tance which  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  traverse  on  cold 
Sundays  to  get  to  the  Woodbury  church,  and  asked  not 
only  to  be  relieved  from  support  of  the  old  church  for 
five  months,  but  also  to  be  allowed  to  have  preaching 
of  their  own  for  that  length  of  time.  This  petition  was 
granted  ;  the  next  year  saw  a  separate  church,  and 
though  the  district  was  not  incorporated  as  the  town 
of  Bethlehem  for  many  years,  its  separate  existence  was 
assured  from  the  time  it  became  a  distinct  parish.  Wash- 
ington, another  outlying  part  of  Woodbury,  followed  the 
example  of  Bethlehem,  and  became  a  separate  society. 
The  people  of  Canton  (which  had  been  settled  by  Sims- 
bury  families  as  part  of  that  town  and  New  Hartford) 
began  to  hold  services  of  their  own  in  1741,  but  they 
did  not  withdraw  definitely  from  the  Simsbury  church 
and  have  their  own  minister  till  six  years  later.^  It  was 
not  until  1750,  however,  that  a  distinctly  separate  parish 
was  made. 

The  population  of  Connecticut,  estimated  from  replies 
to  questions  of  the  Board  of  Trade  in  England,  were 

^  Phelps,  Simsbury,  141.  There  are  instances  of  the  same  sort  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Certain  inhabitants  of  Brookfield,  Palmer,  and  Brimfield,  dis- 
satisfied with  the  inconvenience  they  suffered  because  of  their  distance 
from  churches  and  schools,  petitioned  the  General  Court  that  they  be  in- 
corporated. Millbury  was  made  a  parish  of  Sutton  in  1743,  with  a  sepa- 
rate church,  upon  petition  to  the  General  Court.  See  W.  T.  Davis,  "  War- 
ren," in  Hist,  of  Worcester  Co.,  ii,  1185  ;  J.  C.  Crane,  "  Millbury,"  in 
ibid.,  1092. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      95 

given  in  1730  as  thirty-eight  thousand;  in  1749  the 
white  population  was  reported  to  the  same  body  as 
seventy  thousand.  By  that  time  all  of  Connecticut  had 
been  laid  off  into  towns  and  contained  settlers,  save 
three  tracts  on  the  Massachusetts  border,  west  of  the 
Connecticut  River. 

Long  Island  remained  practically  as  it  was  in  the  pre- 
ceding period ;  the  only  new  settlement  was  made  in  1730 
at  Sag  Harbor,  when  a  few  cottages  were  erected  for 
the  convenience  of  the  fisher-folk  who  had  lived  there 
temporarily.  The  older  towns  grew  more  populous,  and 
the  plantations,  through  the  thrift  of  their  inhabitants, 
became  too  limited  for  the  increasing  number  of  resid- 
ents. A  veritable  swarming  time  came  about  1740-50, 
when  many  families  went  to  the  eastern  shore  of  New 
Jersey,  a  large  number  moving  to  Cape  May  County.* 
By  far  the  largest  emigration  was  to  Westchester  and  to 
Dutchess  County  in  New  York,  where  in  the  Phillipse 
patent  and  the  Nine  Partners  tract  many  former  Long 
Islanders  found  new  homes.^  Putnam  County  on  the 
Hudson  was  wild  and  unpopulated  in  1740,  when  the 
first  settlers  came  from  Cape  Cod  and  from  Suffield  in 
Connecticut.^  In  1741  the  first  emigration  to  Delaware 
County,  then  far  beyond  the  edge  of  settlement,  took 
place,  moving  the  frontier  to  a  considerable  distance 

*  See  map  opposite. 

2  Flint,  Early  Long  Island^  337.  New  England  families  moved  over 
into  New  York  in  this  period  also,  but  it  is  difficult  to  trace  them. 

»  Blake,  Putnam  County,  288,  301,  322,  327,  328,  336.  In  the  Doane 
Family  History,  74,  75,  one  Elnathan  Doane  is  given  as  an  emigrant  with 
his  family  from  Eastham  on  Cape  Cod  to  what  is  now  Doanesburg  in 
Putnam  County,  New  York.  He  went  about  1755. 


96 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


west  of  the  Hudson.  The  hardy  Scotch-Irish  who  had 
over  twenty  years  before  located  homes  in  Londonderry, 
New  Hampshire,  now  furnished  the  pioneers  to  Cherry 
Valley  in  Delaware  County.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
decade  1740-50,  settlers  came  from  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts,  and  Long  Island  to  Orange  County,  giv- 
ing a  strong  New  England  character  especially  to  the 
southern  part.* 

A  movement  farther  afield  has  already  been  noted 
in  the  Dorchester  colony  of  South  Carolina.   In  1752, 

when  Georgia  was 
but  a  score  of  years 
old,  a  committee 
was  sent  from  this 
transplanted  New 
England  town  to 
secure  a  new  grant 
in  Oglethorpe's  ter- 
ritory. Two  rea- 
sons were  alleged 
for  the  project : 
first,  that  there  was  not  sufficient  un granted  land  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  South  Carolina  settlement  to  provide  new 
homes  for  the  sons  and  daughters  just  growing  up  : 
and  second,  that  the  South  Carolina  site  had  never 
been  a  healthy  one.  The  required  permission  was 
granted  by  the  Georgia  authorities,  who  allotted  22,400 
acres  to  the  newcomers.  During  the  year  1752  it  has 
been  estimated  that  over  eight  hundred  men,  women, 
and  children  went  to  the  new  tract,  called  Med  way. 

1  Eager,  Orange  County,  46,  47,  422.  See  map  opposite  p.  95. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      97 

Eventually  almost  all  the  colony  moved  to  the  new 
home,  but  in  Colleton  County  of  South  Carolina  there 
are  still  families  of  New  England  stock,  as  there  doubt- 
less are  in  other  nearby  towns.*  The  Medway  settle- 
ment preserved  its  character  as  a  Puritan  community, 
even  while  it  adapted  itself  to  the  necessities  of  South- 
ern agriculture.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the 
sympathy  of  these  transplanted  New  Englanders  with 
their  Massachusetts  kinsfolk  was  so  strong  that  they 
collected  two  hundred  barrels  of  rice  and  £50  to  send 
to  the  victims  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  renamed  their 
district  Liberty  County,  and  made  themselves  ob- 
noxious in  other  ways  to  Sir  James  Wright,  their  gov- 
ernor, who  deplored  "their  strong  tincture  of  .  .  . 
Oliverian  principles."  ^  Led  by  Dr.  Lyman  Hall,  a  na- 
tive of  Wallingford,  Connecticut,  who  was  numbered 
among  the  first  emigrants  to  Medway,  the  Puritan  col- 
ony in  Liberty  County  did  good  service  by  inducing 
Georgia  to  ally  herself  with  the  patriot  cause.  It  was 
this  same  Dr.  Hall  who  signed  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence for  Georgia,  and  who  became  governor  of 
the  new  state  in  1783. 

The  time  had  come  when  settlements  had  spread  so 
far  from  the  older  towns  that  neither  the  natural  high- 
ways which  the  rivers  afforded,  the  Indian  trails,  nor 
the  well-known  roads  like  the  old  Connecticut  path  were 

^  McCrady,  in  his  South  Carolina^  i,  326,  327,  707,  708,  gives  some  his- 
tory of  this  New  England  centre  in  the  South.  But  apparently  no  one  has 
made  a  detailed  study  of  it. 

2  In  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  dated  April  24,  1775.  It  is 
cited  in  White's  Hist.  Coll.  of  Georgia^  623.  The  settlement  was  often 
called  Midway. 


98        THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

sufficient  for  communication  between  the  new  towns  and 
the  older  ones  along  the  coast.  The  movement  in  all  the 
colonies  for  public  improvements  like  bridges  and  ferries 
indicates  probably  increased  prosperity,  since  higher 
taxes  were  of  course  the  outgrowth  of  legislation  on  the 
subject.  But  while  money  was  expended  upon  bridges  and 
ferries,  the  unscientific  and  uneconomic  process  of  "  work- 
ing out "  road  taxes  continued  to  be  the  usual  method 
till  much  later,  and  is  even  at  the  present  time  approved 
in  many  rural  districts  throughout  almost  the  entire 
country.  Much  of  the  so-called  road-making  about  1750 
was  merely  cutting  wider  a  long-used  Indian  trail.  Ehode 
Island  was  especially  active  in  building  bridges,  provid- 
ing ferries,  improving  old  roads  and  constructing  new 
ones,  so  that  all  parts  of  the  colony  might  be  in  com- 
munication with  one  another.  A  committee  was  chosen 
in  Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  in  1743,  to  "lay  out  and 
mark  a  way  to  the  west  line  of  the  town,  in  order  to 
answer  the  request  ...  on  behalf  of  Ipswich  Canada 
[Winchendon],  and  to  accommodate  Dorchester  Canada 
[Ashburnham]  and  the  new  towns  above  us."  The  road 
through  Lunenburg  and  Fitchburg  was  a  well-known 
thoroughfare ;  a  part  of  it  was  the  old  "  Crown  Point 
Road,"  the  famous  Indian  route  from  Canada  to  the 
Connecticut  River  and  eastward.*  Long  a  thoroughfare 
from  the  coast  to  Lake  Champlain,  the  eastern  end  of 
it  was  now  improved  and  made  available  for  much  traffic 
as  far  as  Lunenburg.    In  New  Hampshire  a  thirty-mile 

*  It  ran  from  a  point  on  Lake  Champlain  a  few  miles  south  of  Brown 
Point  through  the  woods  to  Otter  Creek,  up  which  it  passed  to  the  high- 
lands, over  these  to  West  River,  and  down  that  stream  and  Black  River 
to  the  Connecticut.    See  Hall,  Eastern  Vermont^  21. 


fCTIRS.    CHCnS,.    80ST0H 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS      99 

road  was  cut  from  Dover  to  Cocheco  Falls.  Such  im- 
provements were  common  in  all  the  colonies  except  Maine, 
where  the  towns  lay  close  to  the  shore  or  to  rivers,  so 
that  the  natural  waterways  furnished  sufficient  facilities 
for  transportation  and  communication  between  the  set- 
tlements. There  was  not  in  that  district  as  yet  sufficient 
indication  of  prosperity  to  warrant  any  increase  of  taxes 
or  expenditures  for  public  improvements. 

Enough  has  been  said  of  the  progress  of  settlement 
to  make  it  apparent  that  the  years  from  1713  to  1754 
were  characterized  by  conflicting  tendencies:  on  the 
one  hand  was  the  pressure  exerted  by  an  increasingly 
dense  population  to  thrust  the  less  prosperous,  the  discon- 
tented, the  ambitious,  and  the  more  adventurous  elements 
out  into  the  newer  parts  of  the  colonies.^  The  well-to-do 
classes,  prosperous  merchants,  lawyers  with  lucrative 
practices,  capitalists  of  all  sorts,  are  always  disinclined 
to  move  away  from  their  homes;  they  are  every- 
where the  conservative  element  in  their  community. 
They  are  also  comparatively  few;  but  their  interests 
attach  others  to  them,  and  only  the  more  ambitious  of 
their  underworkers  seek  to  establish  themselves  in  busi- 
ness ventures  of  their  own.  Many  will  naturally  move 
into  the  more  recently  planted  towns ;  but  there  is  always 
a  more  radical  element  which  loves  the  unrestricted  life 
of  a  pioneer  community,  and  chafes  under  the  restraints 
of  a  solidified  economic  and  social  condition.  With  this 
radical  element  there  combines  another  made  up  commonly 
of  young  men  (frequently  unmarried)  who  have  not  the 
capital  to  buy  a  farm  in  the  neighborhood  in  which  they 
*  See  map  opposite. 


100  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

were  reared,  but  can  gather  together  enough  money  to  buy 
a  tract  in  the  wilderness.  This  they  cultivate,  to  the  new 
log  cabins  they  bring  their  brides,  and  here  they  raise 
their  families.  Upon  these  elements  was  the  pressure 
exerted  which  drove  them  out  into  the  wilderness. 

This  pressure  was,  in  the  period  under  discussion, 
intensified  by  the  development  of  a  mania  for  speculation 
in  wild  lands.  It  has  been  shown  how  both  Massachu- 
setts and  Connecticut  felt  this  craze,  and  sold  town- 
ships to  grantees  who  never  intended  to  occupy  the 
lands  so  obtained,  but  meant  to  re-sell  them  and  pocket 
the  profits.  Even  in  older  communities,  such  as  Boston, 
Hartford,  and  New  Haven,  there  were  not  many  enter- 
prises which  invited  new  capital,  besides  the  stereotyped 
ones  of  lumbering,  fishing,  whaling,  and  trading  occu- 
pations by  sea,  and  the  mercantile  life  in  its  various 
phases  by  land.  Capital  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
attracted  to  manufacturing  schemes  had  not  the  English 
Parliament  suppressed  any  budding  plan  by  repressive 
legislation.  The  manufacture  of  felt  hats,  of  various 
commodities  of  iron,  and  of  woolen  cloth  received  atten- 
tion at  the  hands  of  those  British  manufacturers  who 
feared  competition.  The  attitude  of  the  mother  country 
was  by  1754  well  known ;  —  she  would  be  invariably 
hostile  to  any  movement  which  looked  toward  changing 
the  character  of  the  colonies  from  producers  of  raw 
materials  and  consumers  of  English  manufactures.*  In- 
dustry was  thus  kept  comparatively  little  diversified, 

1  See  G.  L.  Beer,  Commercial  Policy  of  England  toward  the  American 
Colonies f  in  *' Columbia  University  Studies  in  History  and  Political 
Science/'  yol.  iii,  no.  2. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILt>EflXESSV,i(^, 

and  opportunities  for  the  outlay  of  surplus  capital  were 
not  numerous.  In  the  unappropriated  land  of  the  col- 
onies, however,  lay  an  opportunity  for  investment  upon 
which  such  men  as  Roger  Wolcott  had  seized/  The 
time  was  as  yet  not  ripe  for  success  in  these  speculative 
enterprises;  the  grants  made  were  too  numerous,  and 
the  demand  for  settlers  within  the  required  three  or 
seven  years  was  too  great  to  be  met  by  the  supply 
of  those  either  here  or  abroad  who  were  willing  to 
go  to  a  frontier  threatened  by  hostile  Indians.  Yet 
these  speculations  added  to  the  influences  enumerated 
above,  and  exerted  considerable  pressure  upon  the  fami- 
lies to  move  out  into  the  unoccupied  parts  of  the 
colonies. 

The  pressure  outward  was  at  the  same  time  met  by  a 
counter-pressure  which  tended  to  keep  back  settlers. 
The  Indians  were  still  numerous  and  still  hostile ;  the 
Peace  of  Utrecht  was  not,  after  all,  to  be  a  permanent 
assurance  of  safety.  It  was  evident  soon  after  1713 
that  in  the  more  remote  settlements,  though  conditions 
were  improved,  life  was  still  destined  to  be  strenuous ; 
that  the  farmer  must  plough  with  one  hand  and  hold 
a  gun  in  the  other.  As  time  went  on,  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  and  western  Massachusetts  towns  were 
especially  liable  to  attack  from  the  northwest,  for  the 
Iroquois  and  their  friends,  held  by  only  a  slender  leash, 
found  forests  no  real  barrier,  and  the  Crown  Point 
Road  a  convenient  highway  for  occasional  attack  and 
retreat.  Even  Connecticut,  a  reasonably  well-protected 
colony  because  of  its  compact  settlement,  had  its  trials 

*  See  his  purchase  of  Connecticut  lands,  page  92. 


31^:,^:  ,.,.THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

from  Indians/"who  raided  Litchfield  in  1722.  The 
authorities  of  New  France,  who  evidently  carried  out 
instructions  from  Paris,  had  kept  the  Indians  on  the 
alert  ever  since  1713 ;  when  the  War  of  the  Austrian 
Succession  brought  France  and  England  again  face  to 
face  in  a  struggle  with  colonial  possessions  for  the 
prize,  the  train  had  been  laid  ready  for  immediate 
encounters.  As  before,  the  Indians  were  the  foes  most 
dreaded,  and  these  the  French  urged  on.  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts  all  suffered ;  towns  were 
deserted,  the  families  fleeing  to  the  older  settlements  to 
remain  till  peace  was  restored.  The  frontier  line  held  in 
the  main,  however ;  but  it  was  not  extended  noticeably, 
for  it  speedily  became  evident  that  the  treaty  of  1748 
was  but  an  armed  truce,  and  that  the  conflict  would  be 
renewed,  and  renewed  speedily.  Even  the  hardiest  hes- 
itated to  plant  a  new  home  in  the  wilderness,  when 
massacre  and  fire  threatened  him  at  any  moment,  and 
if  he  luckily  escaped  with  his  life,  his  labor  was  gone 
for  nothing  in  the  pillage  and  desolation  which  were 
sure  to  follow.  Consequently,  almost  no  new  settle- 
ments were  planted  during  the  last  ten  years  of  the 
period. 

With  fear  of  Indians  was  joined  the  difficulty  of 
getting  clear  titles  to  lands.  Ignorance  of  the  geography 
of  the  country  had  resulted  in  overlapping  grants  of 
various  sorts,  —  in  Maine  to  different  individuals,  in 
the  other  colonies  to  indefinite  boundaries  set  by  the 
charters ;  so  that  a  grantee  of  a  tract  on  the  western 
Connecticut  border  might  go  to  his  new  possessions 
only  to  find  them  occupied  by  a  Dutch  settler  who  held 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS    103 

his  title  from  New  York/  The  settlement  of  Maine  was 
retarded,  also,  because  of  these  controversies  over  over- 
lapping grants,  and  the  consequent  fear  that  all  the 
toils  and  privations  of  beginning  frontier  homes  would 
end  at  last  in  total  loss.  Life  in  the  wilderness  was  not 
at  all  worth  while  unless  one  were  sure  that  ultimately 
ownership  with  a  clear  transferable  title  would  be  the 
reward  of  years  of  labor. 

Yet  even  a  clear  title  did  not  make  poor  land  attract- 
ive. Worcester  County  in  Massachusetts  had  been 
passed  over  for  nearly  sixty  years  because  of  its  uneven 
and  intractable  soil ;  pioneers  left  portions  of  it  un- 
occupied while  they  moved  on  to  take  up  the  intervale 
lands  in  the  Connecticut  and  the  Housatonic  valleys. 
It  was  only  when  the  more  fertile  lands  were  wholly 
peopled  that  the  later  comers  were  willing  to  stop 
midway  and  cultivate  farms  where  the  land  was  more 
difficult  to  subdue.  Ellington  (in  Connecticut),  a  well- 
wooded  and  timbered  plain,  was  passed  by  for  some 
seventy-five  years,  emigrants  preferring  the  mountain- 
ous lands  under  the  impression  that  they  were  more 
fertile.^  Moreover,  the  lands  contigouus  to  the  rivers 

*  Such  was  the  case  of  New  Fairfield,  the  settlement  of  which  was 
delayed  about  twenty  years  by  the  dispute  between  the  two  colonies  over 
the  boundary  line.  See  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.,  387.  In  Tolland  the 
settlers  had  a  long  law  suit  with  the  heirs  of  the  Indian  sachem  of  whom 
they  had  purchased  their  land.  lUd.y  540. 

'  Stiles,  Ancient  Windsor,  263.  Also  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.,  547. 
Ware,  Massachusetts,  had  a  similar  history.  The  tract  was  granted  to  a 
military  company  from  Narragansett,  as  a  reward  for  driving  out  the 
Indians.  The  owners  placed  so  little  value  upon  it  that  they  sold  it  soon 
after  to  John  Reed  of  Boston  for  "  two  coppers  "  an  acre.  See  Barber, 
Hist.  Coll.  of  Mass.,  343. 


104  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

were  chosen  because  of  the  transportation  facilities  they 
offered,  —  a  consideration  of  importance  in  a  country 
where  there  are  no  roads. 

The  settlers  in  the  wild  lands  were  becoming  more 
and  more  differentiated  from  those  of  the  older  towns. 
On  the  frontier  men  mingled  from  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts,  as  has  been  shown,  especially  in  the 
Berkshire  County  towns,  where  they  met  Dutch  settlers 
from  New  York  as  well.  In  many  cases  it  was  probably 
a  second  move  for  the  family,  or  a  third,  and  certain 
families  were  growing  to  be  "  pioneering  families,"  who 
inherited,  as  it  were,  a  longing  for  the  open,  for  the 
free  life  of  an  unorganized  community ;  or  else,  chafing 
among  conservatives  who  resented  change  of  any  sort, 
and  therefore  seemed  intolerant  to  a  radical,  desired  to 
organize  a  community  where  people  might  do  as  they 
pleased.  Wethersfield  had  had  a  great  nimiber  of  such 
splittings  off  from  the  old  church.  It  was  only  natural 
that  such  characters  should  impress  themselves  upon 
a  new  community,  and  that  the  frontier  should  be  more 
radical  than  the  seaboard.  That  the  traditions  of  church 
and  school  were  not  forgotten  even  in  the  midst  of 
overwhelming  vicissitudes  is  evident  from  instances  on 
record  in  Maine,  where  the  province  helped  to  pay  the 
salary  of  at  least  two  ministers,  and  the  people  of  Kit- 
tery  received  from  the  provincial  treasury  <£400  to  help 
them  build  a  new  meeting-house.*  But  the  case  was  not 
always  so  hopeful,  for  the  absence  of  churches  and 
schools  in  some  parts  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire 
had  left  its  mark  upon  the  people,  and  had  been  re- 
*  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  158, 159. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS    105 

corded  with  unfavorable  comment  as  early  as  1754. 
Some  towns  which  had  been  rebuilt  three  times  alleged 
their  poverty  as  an  excuse  for  neglecting  to  support  the 
educational  and  religious  institutions  upon  which  their 
fathers  had  set  such  store/ 

While  this  differentiation  was  taking  place  between 
the  more  populous  seaboard  and  the  sparsely  settled  in- 
terior, it  became  evident  in  one  interesting  instance  that 
England  still  regarded  the  whole  of  New  England  as  an 
inexperienced  and  radical  frontier.  With  the  develop- 
ment of  industry  and  commerce,  banking  projects  of 
a  simple  character  had  been  furthered  by  individuals  in 
the  older  colonies  such  as  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island,  but  had  met  with  opposition  from  the  newer 
communities,  whose  inhabitants  were  usually  of  the 
debtor  class  or  in  sympathy  with  it.  The  most  notable 
banking  scheme  was  launched  in  1740  in  Massachu- 
setts, where  a  bank  was  proposed  on  land  security. 
Scarcely  was  it  organized,  when  the  English  Parliament 
ordered  its  dissolution  by  applying  the  "  Bubble  Act," 
which  had  had  its  origin  in  the  disasters  of  1720.  Thus 
did  the  English  government  express  its  disapproval  of 
frontier  finance.^  But  the  floating  of  paper  money,  in 
the  shape  of  bills  of  credit,  was  undisturbed,  perhaps 
because  the  scarcity  of  specie  in  the  colonies,  even 
for  paying  direct  taxes  levied  that  Indian  wars  might 

1  Belknap,  iii,  288-290,  shows  a  sad  state  of  affairs  in  New  Hampshire, 
where  poverty  was  made  the  excuse  for  persistent  evasion  of  the  school 
laws. 

2  The  best  account  of  this  Land  Bank  is  by  A.  M.  Davis,  Currency  and 
Banking  in  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay^  in  Publications  of  Amer, 
Econ.  Assn.f  3d  ser.,  ii,  No.  2. 


106  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

be  carried  on,  made  some  form  of  credit  an  absolute 
necessity. 

The  close  of  the  period  1713-54  shows  France  and 
England  again  face  to  face,  waiting  for  some  overt  act 
to  precipitate  open  warfare.  The  European  questions  at 
stake  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  do  not  concern  this 
study.  The  issues  in  North  America  were  those  of  ex- 
pansion, of  the  future  character  of  the  frontier.  It  was 
to  her  American  outposts,  their  inhabitants,  and  to  pio- 
neer methods  of  warfare  that  England  looked  to  save 
the  day  in  the  last  struggle  with  her  ancient  enemy. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

The  same  general  works  mentioned  for  the  previous  chapters  are  again 
available  here.  Some  other  local  histories  have  been  called  into  requisi- 
tion, as  Rev.  Samuel  Orcutt's  History  of  Torrington,  Connecticut  (Albany, 
1878)  ;  Noah  A.  Phelps,  History  of  Simsbury,  Granby,  and  Canton  (Hart- 
ford, 1845)  ;  William  Hyde,  Address  delivered  at  Ware,  Massachusetts 
(Brookfield,  1847)  ;  and  Arthur  Latham  Perry,  Origins  of  Williamstoum. 
For  Vermont,  Coolidge  and  Mansfield  duplicate  Thompson's  Vermont  in 
many  cases  ;  but  B.  H.  Hall's  History  of  Eastern  Vermont  (New  York, 
1858)  contains  much  material  not  available  elsewhere.  Hiland  Hall's 
History  of  Vermont  (Albany,  1868)  is  a  different  work  entirely.  Charles  A. 
Hanna,  in  The  Scotch-Irish  (2  vols.,  New  York  and  London,  1902),  is  the 
authority  for  the  Scotch-Irish  settlements  in  New  Hampshire  and  else- 
where. 

There  are  several  good  county  histories  for  New  York  which  take  up 
the  period.  Samuel  W.  Eager's  Outline  History  of  Orange  County  (New- 
burgh,  1846-47)  ;  Robert  Bolton,  Jr.,  History  of  the  County  of  Westches- 
ter (2  vols.,  New  York,  1848)  ;  William  J.  Blake,  History  of  Putnam 
County,  New  York  (New  York,  1849)  ;  and  a  most  interesting  work  of 
the  capitalist  Jay  Gould  in  his  early  days.  The  History  of  Delaware 
County  (Roxbury,  1856)  —  all  these  are  excellent  pieces  of  work. 

For  the  Dorchester  colony  in  its  later  history,  see  Rev.  George  White, 
Historical  Collections  of  Georgia  (3d  edition,  New  York,  1855)  ;  C.  C. 


FORTY  YEARS  OF  STRIFE  WITH  THE  WILDERNESS    107 

Jones,  Jr.,  History  of  Georgia  (2  vols.,  Boston,  1883)  ;  Rev.  D.  B.  Hall, 
The  Halls  of  New  England  (Albany,  1883)  ;  and  T.  P.  Hall  (compiler). 
Genealogical  Notes,  relating  to  the  families  of  Hon.  Lyman  Hall,  of  Georgia 
[and  others]. 

For  economic  conditions,  reference  has  already  been  made  to  William 
A.  Weeden's  work.  There  are  a  few  general  works  such  as  Professor 
E.  L.  Bogart's  Economic  History  of  the  United  States,  Miss  Katharine 
Coman's  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,  and  Professor  D.  R. 
Dewey's  Financial  History  of  the  United  States ;  but  these  take  up  the 
matter  very  briefly.  Professor  G.  L.  Beer  has  made  the  best  study  of  the 
navigation  acts  in  his  Commercial  Policy  of  England  towards  the  American 
Colonies  in  Columbia  University  Studies,  iii.  No.  2.  Professor  Beer's 
newest  hooks,  —  British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765  (N.  Y.  1907),  and 
Origins  of  the  British  Colonial  System,  1578-1660  (N.  Y.  1908),  are  also 
admirable.  A.  M.  Davis  has  done  the  best  work  on  currency  and  banking 
in  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   FRONTIER   IN   WAR   AND  IN   PEACE 
1754-1781 

As  early  as  1750  it  was  evident  that  the  treaty  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle  was  merely  an  armed  truce,  and  that 
within  a  few  years  there  must  inevitably  ensue  a  life- 
and-death  struggle  between  England  and  France  for  the 
possession  of  New  France,  including  the  Ohio  valley, 
and  the  unknown,  unexplored  regions  stretching  west- 
ward to  the  mountains  and  the  Pacific.  To  the  victors 
in  this  struggle  the  colonies  would  be  the  prize,  and 
hence  they  were  forced  to  take  sides  not  merely  to 
decide  under  what  government  they  should  continue,  but 
in  some  cases  actually  to  struggle  for  their  very  exist- 
ence. The  Indians  were  held  by  the  slightest  leash,  and 
even  tried  and  seasoned  frontiersmen  were  unwilling  to 
carve  new  homes  out  of  the  forest  until  the  outcome  of 
the  struggle  should  be  known. 

In  1754,  two  years  before  the  European  contest  be- 
gan, the  representatives  of  the  British  government,  in 
the  persons  of  General  Braddock  and  the  young  frontiers- 
man George  Washington,  began  the  struggle  with  the 
French  and  Indians  at  Fort  DuQuesne.  Between  that 
year  and  1760,  when  the  hardest  fighting  was  over,  there 
was  but  little  shifting  of  the  frontier  line.  In  western 
Massachusetts  the  depopulation  of  Williamstown  and 
Becket  was  but  temporary,  but  not  a  new  town  was 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  109 

planted  within  the  borders  of  the  colony  till  the  actual 
warfare  was  over.  In  Connecticut  conditions  were  similar : 
one  man  lived  alone  in  Barkhamstead  from  1749  to 
1759 ;  and  the  single  family  in  Hartland  moved  back  to 
civilization  in  1754  after  a  year  of  pioneering,  but  re- 
turned  the  following  year  with  three  families  from  Lyme.  \ 
rom  165^  until  1762  not  a  new  settlement  was  planted.  \ 
No  extension  of  the  settled  area  in  New  Hampshire  took 
place  till  1758,  nor  in  Maine  till  1759.  A  family  which 
had  already  tried  pioneering  in  Chariest  own.  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  had  come  originally  from  Shirley,  Massachu- 
setts, moved  to  Putney,  Vermont,  in  1755,  and  found 
three  families  there  before  them.^  Until  1761  no  new 
settlers  moved  into  any  other  part  of  Vermont. 

With  the  fall  of  Quebec  in  1758,  the  war  in  America 
was  practically  over,  though  the  contests  in  Europe  con- 
tinued five  years  longer.  The  pent-up  population  was 
ready  to  swarm  by  1760,  and  as  soon  as  hostilities  ceased, 
the  unappropriated  lands  were  taken  up.  A  few  Mas- 
sachusetts towns  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  movement. 
Lee  ^  drew  its  pioneers  of  1760  from  Tolland  and  New 
Haven,  Connecticut ;  from  Barnstable,  Sandwich,  Fal- 
mouth, and  Great  Barrington,  in  Massachusetts.  Hunt- 
ington, whose  first  settlers  called  their  new  home  Norwich 
from  the  Connecticut  town  they  had  left,  sent  back 
twenty  years  after  for  a  minister  from  the  old  home.^  To 

*  Rev.  Amos  Foster,  "  Putney,"  in  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.y  v,  pt.  ii,  219. 
The  families  after  1761  came  from  Canterbury,  Connecticut,  and  from 
Rehoboth,  Massachusetts.  A  little  later  others  came  from  Athol,  Man- 
chester, and  Oxford,  Massachusetts.  Ibid-t  220,  240,  243,  244. 

2  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  o/Mass.f  77.  In  1770  thirteen  families  were  here. 
Amory  Gale,  Lee,  4.  ■  J.  H.  Bisbee,  Huntington^  7,  26,  27. 


110  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Chesterfield  there  moved  sixty  families  between  1760 
and  1765,  twenty-one  of  whom  came  from  Scituate,  the 
others  from  seven  Massachusetts  towns/  New  Ashford 
had  pioneer  families  from  Ehode  Island  and  Connecticut, 
as  had  Hancock,  Hinsdale,  and  Cheshire.^  Richmond 
contained  settlers  from  Long  Island  and  Connecticut, 
Clarksburg  drew  its  inhabitants  from  Long  Island  and 
Rhode  Island,  while  Williamsburg's  pioneers  were  from 
Martha's  Vineyard  and  central  Massachusetts.  Thus  the 
population  of  the  most  recently  settled  towns  was  made  up 
of  diverse  elements  which  were  seeking  new  homes  in  any 
New  England  territory  as  yet  unoccupied.  Besides  grant- 
ing lands  in  the  usual  way,  upon  the  request  of  would-be 
proprietors,  the  colonial  government  of  Massachusetts 
took  the  initiative  on  June  2,  1762,  by  offering  for 
sale  at  public  auction  nine  townships  lying  near  the 
western  border  of  the  colony.  The  township  of  Adams 
brought  into  the  colonial  treasury  .£3200,  Windsor 
£1430,  Peru  £1460.'  The  three  proprietors  of  Adams 
laid  out  forty-eight  settling  lots  of  one  hundred  acres  each, 
to  which  they  later  added  twenty  lots  of  the  same  size, 
and  admitted  settlers  to  the  number  of  sixty,  on  condition 
that  they  build  a  meeting-house  and  settle  a  minister  ac- 
cording to  the  requirements  of  the  General  Court.  In 

*  Holland,  West  Mass.y  ii,  183.  The  towns  were  Cohasset,  Dudley, 
Sutton,  Charlton,  Pembroke,  Pelham,  and  Northampton. 

^  Barber,  83,  73,  75.  The  first  settler  of  Hancock  came  with  his  seven 
sons,  who  all  settled  about  him.  All  four  of  these  towns  are  strongly  Baptist, 
as  were  their  Rhode  Island  pioneers. 

'  Adams  was  seven  by  five  miles,  as  was  Windsor  ;  Peru  was  six  by 
four  and  one  half.  This  makes  Adams  bring  about  seventy  cents  an  acre 
Windsor  about  thirty-three  cents,  and  Peru  about  thirty-seven  cents. 


THE  FKONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  111 

1768  the  rest  of  the  land  was  divided  into  tracts  contain- 
ing two  hundred  acres  each/  Windsor,  another  of  these 
auction  townships,  was  settled  by  Connecticut  and  Had- 
ley  families ;  Peru  drew  its  first  family  from  New  Jersey, 
later  ones  from  Connecticut  and  eastern  Massachusetts.^ 
Connecticut  settlers  had,  as  has  been  shown,  gone  in 
considerable  numbers  to  western  Massachusetts.  They 
also  filled  up  what  little  unoccupied  land  was  left 
in  their  own  colony.  Barkhamstead,  whose  settlers  came 
from  Enfield,  Suffield,  Simsbury,  Hamden,  Hartford,  and 
East  Haddam;^  Hartland,  which  was  a  younger  Lyme;^ 
Colebrook,  whose  pioneers  were  Windsor  and  East  Wind- 
sor people — these,  with  Winchester,  provided  homes 
for  a  few.  The  whole  of  the  colony  was  thus  laid  out  in 
townships,  and  the  history  of  settlement  within  the  bor- 
ders of  Connecticut  was  ended,  as  was  that  of  Khode 
Island  and  Massachusetts.  But  yet  there  were  many  fami- 
lies in  all  these  colonies  restless  and  unsatisfied.  For  such 
adventurous  spirits  lay  the  vacant  lands  beyond  the  fron- 
tier line  of  northern  New  England.  During  the  French 
and  Indian  War  soldiers  had  passed  continually  through 
the  territory  along,  both  sides  of  the  Connecticut  Eiver, 
and  when  peace  was  restored,  they  were  eager  to  possess 
the  fertile  tracts  which  they  had  coveted  on  their  marches. 
Governor  Wentworth  of  New  Hampshire  and  his  council 
ordered  that  a  survey  be  made,  and  that  townships  six 
miles  square  be  laid  out.  During  1761  sixty  townships 

*  Barber,  61,  62.  The  first  settlers  were  mostly  from  Litchfield,  Wood- 
bury, and  Wallingford,  Connecticut ;  they  very  soon  sold  to  Quakers  from 
Rhode  Island,  and  the  population  changed  in  character  entirely. 

2  Holland,  Western  Mass.,  ii,  615,  616,  543,  544. 

"  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.f  460.      *  Trumbull,  Connecticut^  ii,  112. 


112  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

were  granted  on  the  west  side,  and  eighteen  on  the  east 
side  of  the  river,  in  each  of  which  there  were  reserved 
lots  for  "public  purposes/'  and  five  hundred  acres  for 
the  governor,  the  reservation  being  free  of  all  fees  and 
charges.  Altogether  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  grants 
were  made,  and  the  proprietors  sought  settlers  in  all  the 
colonies.  ^  Rhode  Islanders  were  going  to  western  Mass- 
achusetts and  Pennsylvania,  others  moved  to  New  Hamp- 
shire, where  a  new  Richmond  perpetuated  the  memory 
of  the  old  one  of  1669.  Marlow  was  granted  in  1761  to 
seventy  men,  mostly  of  Lyme,  Connecticut,  who  brought 
twenty-eight  families  here  in  ten  years.  Lebanon  is  a  child 
of  Lebanon  and  Mansfield,  Connecticut;  Claremont's 
pioneers  were  from  Hebron,  Farmington,  and  other 
Connecticut  towns,  Hebron  also  contributing  families  to 
Gilsum.  Plainfield  is  but  Plainfield,  Connecticut,  trans- 
planted, Lyme  but  an  offshoot  of  the  older  Lyme.  Fami- 
lies from  East  Haddam  founded  Campton,  others  from 
Hebron  and  Lebanon  began  Orford.  From  North  Killing- 
worth  six  men  went  in  1765  to  Newport  and  spent  the 
winter;  the  next  year  their  wives  and  children  followed, 
and  the  permanence  of  the  town  was  assured.  The  num- 
ber of  Connecticut  settlers  who  began  New  Hampshire 
towns  was  not  small,  and  examples  might  be  multiplied. 
Massachusetts  also  did  her  part  in  founding  New 
Hampshire  towns.  To  Lancaster,  Plymouth,  Weare,  Corn- 
ish, Croydon,  Stoddard,  Bradford  —  to  these  and  other 

^  Belknap,  Hist,  of  New  Hampshire,  ii,  312,  313. 

'  Edmund  Wheeler,  Croydon  Celebration^  73-157.  Most  of  the  first 
settlers  came  from  Plymouth  County  or  from  Sutton.  Later  ones  were 
from  Royalston,  Boston,  Worcester,  Brimfield,  and  Hingham. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  113 

towns  moved  many  Massachusetts  families.  To  some  of 
the  new  towns  went  also  families  from  eastern  New 
Hampshire/  so  that  four  colonies  mingled  on  the  north- 
ern frontier.  The  growth  of  New  Hampshire  was  remark-  / 
able :  one  hundred  towns  were  planted  in  fifteen  years 
following  1760,  all  of  them  by  families  from  Con- 
necticut, Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  or  the  older 
New  Hampshire  towns. 

Nor  do  these  one  hundred  towns  represent  all  the 
northern  emigration,  for  Maine  claimed  a  share.  During 
the  early  part  of  the  French  and  Indian  War,  towns 
along  the  frontier  were  harassed  by  the  savages,  and 
until  the  fall  of  Quebec  the  whole  eastern  section  re- 
mained a  wilderness.  Tentative  beginnings  had  been 
made  in  several  towns  in  1760,  while  in  1761  twelve 
townships  were  granted  east  of  the  Penobscot  River. 
To  these  there  moved,  within  the  next  few  years,  settlers 
from  Haverhill,  Andover,  Concord  (New  Hampshire),  and 
the  western  towns  of  Maine,  such  as  York  and  George- 
town.^ Other  towns  were  founded  under  proprietors,  as 
Belfast,  whose  grantees  were  inhabitants  of  London- 
derry, New  Hampshire.  They  purchased  of  the  heirs  of 
General  Waldo  (founder  of  Waldoborough)  15,000 acres, 

'  To  Wolfeborough  from  Portsmouth,  New  Durham,  Suncook,  and 
other  towns.  See  B.  F.  Parker,  Wolfeborough^  105-111,  114.  Also  to 
Middletown  from  Lee  and  Rochester.  See  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  2d. 
ser.,  iii,  121.  The  ratable  polls  in  New  Hampshire  in  1753  were  6392  ;  in 
1767,  11,964  ;  in  1773,  13,853.  See  Bouton,  Provincial  Papers,  vii,  723. 
Belknap  gives  the  whole  population  in  1767  as  52,700  ;  in  1775,  82,200. 
See  his  Hist,  of  New  Hampshire^  iii,  234. 

2  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  544.  Coolidge  and  Mansfield,  151,  165,  310, 
343.  Land  sold  here,  before  1784,  for  thirteen  cents  an  acre;  after  that, 
for  thirty  cents.  See  letter  quoted  in  Williamson,  ii,  608,  n. 


114  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

which  they  divided  into  fifty-one  rights  and  resold  to 
Scotch-Irish  families  of  Londonderry  and  the  surround- 
ing towns.  A  company  laid  out  Augusta  in  1761-62, 
and  in  five  years  had  disposed  of  all  rights  but  five  to 
people  from  Boston  and  the  surrounding  towns.  Indeed, 
Massachusetts  supplied  most  of  the  settlers  to  the  ninety- 
four  Maine  towns  which  were  founded  between  1759 
and  1776.  A  few  villages  will  illustrate  all.  To  Vassal- 
borough  went  Cape  Cod  families,  ten  in  the  eight  years 
after  1760;  five  families  from  Beverly  and  Andover 
moved  to  Bluehill,  1762-65;  five  Haverhill  families 
began  Bucksport;  Concord  (Massachusetts)  families 
settled  four  towns,  Bloomfield,  Canaan,  Norridgewock, 
Baldwin;  while  Cape  Cod  had  three  to  her  credit, — 
Hampden,  Manchester,  and  China,  —  though  some 
families  came  also  from  Nantucket.  Plymouth  County 
sent  emigrants  to  Hebron.  Several  families  often 
banded  together  to  go  to  the  wilderness,  as  the  four 
families  who  moved  from  Rowley  to  Waterford.  The 
usual  conditions  —  that  thirty  families  be  settled  within 
six  years  —  were  not  often  fulfilled ;  but  the  emigra- 
tion was  certainly  a  large  one.  In  1772  there  were 
forty-two  towns  in  the  Penobscot  district  alone,  and 
2638  families.* 

1  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  373,  gives  a  census  report  of  1764  which  he 
says  is  neither  very  thorough  nor  very  correct.  He  gives  the  following 
figures  :  —  White  Persons. 

York  County 11,145 

Cumberland  County. .  .8,195   >/ 

Lincoln  County 4,247 

Total  23,587 

332  negroes. 
23|919 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  115 

Still  other  new  lands  were  awaiting  inhabitants.  To 
the  people  of  eastern  Massachusetts,  Maine  had  been 
most  accessible ;  to  those  in  the  central  part,  New  Hamp- 
shire had  offered  an  alluring  prospect ;  but  to  the  people 
of  the  western  counties  of  the  Bay  colony,  Vermont  lands 
were  too  easily  reached  to  be  passed  by  for  tracts  to  the 
eastward.  Up  to  1761  the  danger  of  fire  and  tomahawk 
was  too  great  to  be  risked ;  with  that  fear  set  at  rest, 
there  was  no  restraint  upon  those  who  wanted  new  homes. 
Even  the  conflicting  claims  to  the  territory  which  were 
set  up  by  New  York  and  New  Hampshire  could  not 
stem  the  tide  that  surged  northward,  though  usually 
the  frontiersman  was  wary  about  building  upon  the 
chance  of  being  dispossessed  in  a  few  years.  New  Hamp- 
shire had  made  large  grants  on  the  Vermont  side  of  the 
Connecticut,  and  the  patentees  had  gone  into  all  parts 
of  the  other  colonies  to  get  settlers  for  the  new  lands. 
Seventy-four  new  towns  were  planted  in  the  fifteen  years 
just  preceding  1776,  to  whose  origin  every  colony  in 
New  England,  save  Maine,  which  had  enough  vacant 
land  within  easy  reach,  contributed  many  families.  Rhode 
Island  was  represented  in  Marlborough,  Bennington, 
Shaftsbury,  Danby,  Londonderry,  and  probably  others ; 
Smithfield  was  the  town  which  sent  the  most  families. 
Weathersfield  in  Vermont  suggests  by  its  name  Con- 
necticut origin ;  *  many  of  the  proprietors  were  New 
Haven  men.  Norwich  was  a  town  which  attracted  Pres- 
ton and  Mansfield  settlers,  while  Middletown,  Suffield, 
and  Strafford  emigrants  settled  in  Marlborough  with 
many  from  western  Massachusetts   towns,  and   some 

*  Thompson,  Hist,  of  Vermontf  pt.  iii,  184.  The  spelling  differs,  however. 


116  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Smithfield  (Rhode  Island)  families.  Arlington  was  the 
home  which  Connecticut  Episcopalians  chose;  eleven 
families  from  Newtown  arrived  in  1764,  —  almost  a  whole 
congregation,  as  was  the  group  of  families  which  joined 
them  from  New  Milford.  Nor  did  the  families  come 
singly.  Hartford's  pioneers  were  from  Lebanon,  Con- 
necticut ;  in  two  years  it  had  more  than  twelve  families 
established.  Eight  families  moved  from  Salisbury  to 
Tin  mouth.  Vergennes,  Thetford,  Rupert,  Strafford, 
Pittsf ord  —  dozens  of  towns  had  Connecticut  represent- 
atives, side  by  side  with  families  from  most  western 
Massachusetts  towns,  and  sometimes  from  Dutchess 
County  and  Nine  Partners,  New  York.^  From  the  very 
names  of  most  towns  one  may  often  see  their  origin, 
—  as  in  Pomf  ret,  Wallingf ord,  Salisbury,  Newbury,  and 
Londonderry. 

Bennington  will  serve  as  a  type  of  the  old  methods 
of  planting  towns,  combined  with  new  features.  There 
was  an  organized  emigration  to  Bennington  from  Hard- 
wick,  Massachusetts,  in  1761.  Captain  Samuel  Robin- 
son, a  Hardwick  resident,  was  returning  from  the  French 
and  Indian  War  when  he  lost  his  way,  and  in  endeavor- 
ing to  get  home  through  the  wilderness,  passed  through 
the  country  about  Bennington.  He  found  the  land  so 
attractive  that  he  determined  to  make  for  himself  a  new 
home,  and  gathering  a  company  of  twenty-two  people, 
set  off  for  Vermont.  By  winter  some  thirty  families  from 

*  Dutchess  County  and  Nine  Partners  had  had  accessions  from  New 
Jersey,  as  has  been  shown  ;  New  Jersey  had  been  settled  from  Long  Is- 
land, and  Connecticut  and  Long  Island  from  Connecticut.  The  pioneer- 
ing spirit  had  evidently  not  been  diminished  in  the  moving.  See  A.  M. 
Caverly,  Pittsford,  26-52. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  117 

Massachusetts  towns,  and  a  few  others  from  Connecti- 
cut, had  arrived.  The  Hardwick  emigration  was  dis- 
tinctly a  religious  movement ;  the  people  had  gone  "  to 
gain  greater  freedom  in  ecclesiastical  affairs."  ^  A  church 
was  organized  in  1762  with  fifty-seven  members.  For 
many  of  the  settlers  it  was  a  second  or  a  third  remove : 
one  man  had  gone  from  Cambridge  to  Hardwick,  thence 
to  Bennington;  another  had  begun  life  in  Concord,  but 
had  lived  in  Hardwick  and  Amherst ;  another  had  moved 
from  Guilford  to  Roxbury,  thence  to  Bennington;  a 
fourth  came  directly  from  Charlemont,  Massachusetts, 
but  had  been  born  in  Norwich,  Connecticut.  There  was 
a  family  from  Newark,  New  Jersey,  one  from  Ports- 
mouth, England,  and  one  from  Troy,  New  York,  mingled 
with  those  from  the  New  England  colonies.^ 

A  few  figures  are  significant.  In  1771  the  population 
of  Cumberland  and  Gloucester  counties  was  4669, — 3947 
in  the  former  and  722  in  the  latter;  the  population  of 
the  whole  of  Vermont  was  about  7000,^  and  this  num- 
ber had  been  very  considerably  augmented  by  1776. 

The  course  which  expansion  had  taken  after  1763 

^  L.  R.  Paige,  Hardwick,  56,  n. 

2  Jennings,  Memorials  of  a  Century,  20-22,  33,  205-317.  One  of  the 
settlers  from  Hardwick,  Massachusetts,  on  his  way  to  Bennington  in 
1761,  passed  through  Charlemont,  Massachusetts,  as  a  tavern-bill  is  pre- 
served by  the  family  showing  his  expense  at  that  place.  Ibid.,  23.  Hard- 
wick parted  with  another  company  in  1775,  who  went  under  the  leadership 
of  Asa  Whitcomb  to  plant  Barnard,  Vermont ;  this  was  not,  however,  a 
distinctly  religious  movement.  L.  R.  Paige,  Hardwick,  55,  56. 

3  Thompson,  pt.  ii,  30.  R.  S.  Taft  (in  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.,  i,  492)  thinks 
that  what  contributed  largely  to  the  rapid  settlement  of  Chittenden 
County  just  before  the  Revolution  was  the  fact  that  there  a  clear  title 
could  be  obtained,  whereas  in  the  southern  part,  the  conflicting  claims  of 
New  York  and  New  Hampshire  interfered  greatly  with  any  possibility  of 


118      THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

was  directed  somewhat  by  the  terms  of  the  English 
proclamation  of  that  year.  France  had  at  last  been 
driven  from  the  New  World,  and  by  the  Peace  of  Paris 
England  had  come  into  undisputed  possession  of  all  the 
land  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  the  GuK  of  Mexico.  The 
government  of  these  tracts  was  provided  for  *  by  a  pro- 
clamation erecting  the  territories  of  Quebec,  East  Florida, 
West  Florida,  and  Grenada,  leaving  the  whole  interior 
of  the  country  bounded  by  the  Great  Lakes  and  Florida, 
the  Appalachian  Mountains  and  the  Mississippi  River, 
to  the  Indians  and  the  fur-trade,  with  specific  injunc- 
tions that  settlement  should  be  kept  out.  Thus  the  area 
open  to  settlement  was  very  definitely  restricted.  North- 
ern New  England  had  been  filling  rapidly  since  1760, 
and  the  three  southern  colonies  were  entirely  divided 
off  into  townships.^  But  there  was  still  land  east  of  the 
limit  laid  down  by  the  property  line  of  1764,  and  by 
the  boundaries  defined  at  Fort  Stanwix  in  1768.  To- 
wards one  of  these  tracts  much  of  Connecticut's  surplus 
population  turned.  The  territory  of  the  Delaware  and 
Susquehanna  Companies  in  northeastern  Pennsylvania 

getting  a  secure  title.  Settlers  in  Windham,  Windham  County,  bought 
land  in  1773  for  three  or  four  English  shillings  an  acre  ;  this  was  in 
the  disputed  tracts.  See  Mrs.  L.  B.  Wood,  "  Windham,"  in  Vermont 
Hist.  Gaz.,  V,  pt.  iii,  5. 

*  The  document  is  given  in  its  entirety  in  Macdonald,  Select  Charters^ 
267-272. 

*  There  is  no  room  in  this  study  for  the  investigation  of  the  New  Eng- 
land migrations  to  Canada  following  the  French  and  Indian  War.  Fisher- 
men from  Cape  Cod  and  Nantucket  took  advantage  of  the  proclamation 
of  the  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  in  1756,  and  as  early  as  1757  the  move- 
ment to  Cape  Sable  began.  In  1761-62  a  number  of  families  founded 
Barrington.  See  The  Doane  Family ^  75,  76. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  119 

was  the  great  district  to  which  hundreds  of  families  now 
moved.  The  Delaware  Company  was  a  Connecticut  or- 
ganization which  purchased  lands  of  the  Indians  on  the 
Delaware  River,  with  the  sanction  of  Connecticut,  the 
claimant  of  the  lands  under  her  charter.  They  invited 
settlers  to  that  tract,  where  the  proprietors  announced 
in  October,  1760,  that  they  had  erected  three  town- 
ships, each  extending  ten  miles  along  the  Delaware  and 
eight  miles  inland.  They  had  also  laid  out  a  large  town 
of  eighty  lots  in  the  middle  township,  and  had  built 
thirty  cabins,  three  loghouses,  a  grist-mill,  and  a  saw- 
mill. Twenty  men  were  reported  as  being  on  their  land, 
and  one  hundred  families  were  expected  in  the  spring. 
The  lands  were  parceled  out  in  two-hundred-acre  lots, 
twelve  of  which  were  to  be  cleared  and  improved  and  a 
house  built  on  each  within  three  years,  on  pain  of  for- 
feiture.^ Two  years  later  there  were  sixteen  families 
settled  on  the  river,  their  farms  spreading  over  seven 
miles.  Forty  men  were  in  the  settlement,  living  in  log- 
houses,  and  claiming  their  lands  under  title  from  Con- 
necticut.^ 

The  Susquehanna  Company,  also  a  Connecticut  as- 
sociation, was  formed  by  eight  hundred  and  fifty  Con- 
necticut men  who  in  1755  bought  the  lands  claimed  by 
the  Six  Nations  in  northern  Pennsylvania,  in  accordance 

*  Report  of  the  Sheriff  and  Justices  of  Northampton  County  (to  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Pennsylvania),  October  15,  1760.  See  Pennsylvania  Colonial 
RecordSy  viii,  565.  Also  Miner,  Hist,  of  Wyoming,  70. 

^  Memorandum  of  John  Williamson,  Pa.  Archives^  iv,  83, 84.  The  names 
given  are  Thomas,  Tracey,  Jones,  Kimball,  Cash,  Parks,  Tyler,  and  Cum- 
mins, —  all  of  them  Connecticut  or  Massachusetts  names.  This  was  called 
the  Cushetunck  settlement,  and  is  probably  the  later  Cochectou  in  Wayne 
County. 


120  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

with  colonial  practice.  The  tract  was  twenty  miles  in 
extent  from  north  to  south,  and  covered  two  degrees  of 
longitude  from  a  line  just  west  of  the  Susquehanna 
Kiver/  In  1762  the  Company  sent  two  hundred  per- 
sons into  the  beautiful  Wyoming  Valley,  whose  intervale 
lands  and  luxuriant  woods  offered  richest  prospects  for 
new  homes.^  The  Company  had  made  a  regulation  re- 
quiring that  the  emigrants  should  support  a  minister, 
and  one  went  with  the  band  in  1762.  Many  of  these 
first  settlers  went  back  to  Connecticut  for  the  winter, 
returning  in  the  spring  of  1763  to  the  Wyoming  Valley 
with  their  families.^  In  October  the  Indians  fell  upon 
the  settlement ;  many  were  massacred,  among  them  their 
minister,  and  the  rest  fell  back  to  Connecticut.  For  six 
years  the  valley  lay  desolate ;  then  a  second  company, 
taking  with  them  a  minister,  was  sent  out.  Feeling  as- 
sured that  this  time  the  enterprise  would  be  successful, 
the  Company  apportioned  in  each  township  three  shares 
of  land,  each  containing  about  three  hundred  acres,  — 
one  for  schools,  one  for  the  erection  of  a  church  and 
parsonage,  and  one  for  the  support  of  a  pastor.  When 
the  forty  persons  who  set  out  from  Connecticut  arrived, 
they  found  that  Pennsylvania  had  determined  to  make 
good  her  claim  to  the  Susquehanna  Company's  lands, 
and  had  also  sent  settlers  into  the  territory.  All  the  set- 
tlers stayed,  however,  and  by  April,  1769,  there  were 

*  Conn.  Col.  Rec.^  x,  378.  The  assembly  acquiesced  in  the  proposed 
colony  to  be  planted  by  the  Susquehanna  Company  if  His  Majesty  ap- 
proved. 

2  Sherman  Day,  Hist.  Col.  of  Pa.,  434. 

"  Stewart  Pearce,  Annals  of  Luzerne  County ^  277.  This  settlement  was 
just  below  Wilkesbarre. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  121 

two  hundred  and  seventy  or  eighty  able-bodied  men 
here.  In  September  the  Pennsylvanians  drove  out  the 
Connecticut  men,  and  forced  them  again  to  their  old 
homes/  Not  daunted  by  their  expulsion  from  their 
lands,  they  returned  in  small  squads  in  1770,  only  to 
be  again  driven  out  in  the  fall.  Two  families  seem  to 
have  settled  in  Plymouth,  and  were  joined  by  others  in 
1771-72.^  From  that  time  on,  settlers  came  in  increas- 
ing numbers.  Wilkesbarre  (its  name  indicative  of  colo- 
nial sympathy  with  English  parliamentary  affairs)  was 
a  typical  New  England  town.  Surveyed  in  1770,  it  had 
two  hundred  acres  divided  into  eight  squares  of  twenty- 
five  acres  each,  these  into  six  lots,  each  of  which  con- 
tained (after  the  streets  were  taken  off)  nearly  four 
acres.  A  central  square  was  laid  off  for  the  town  build- 
ings, mills  and  ferries  were  provided,  and  "  with  true 
pilgrim  zeal,  attention  was  immediately  turned  to  the 
subject  of  a  gospel  ministry,  and  the  establishment  of 
schools."  In  1772  the  first  town-meeting  was  held.  It 
is  evident  that  such  a  village  is  merely  a  transplanted 
Connecticut  town,  in  settlers,  traditions,  and  institutions. 
A  tax  of  threepence  in  the  pound  was  levied  in  1773 
for  the  support  of  a  free  school  in  each  township  of  the 
tract,  and  the  following  year  was  appointed  the  first 

«  Miner,  Hist,  of  Wyoming,  70,  104,  105,  107-113.  The  five  townships 
settled  at  this  time  were  Wilkesbarre,  Hanover,  Kingston,  Plymouth,  and 
Pittston.  Obadiah  Gore  and  his  seven  sons  went  from  Norwich  with  the 
first  company  in  1769.  Very  few  settlers  brought  their  families. 

2  H.  B.  Wright,  Hist.  Sketches  of  Plymouth,  38,  361,  371,  373.  There 
were  about  eighty  men  here  in  1777  who  were  able  to  bear  arms.  Ihid., 
66.  Plymouth,  Pennsylvania,  was  named  from  Plymouth,  Connecticut, 
which  had  been  named  for  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  from  which  its  first 
settlers  came.  Pearce,  Annals  of  Luzerne  County,  215. 


i22  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

school  committee,  with  power  to  erect  schoolhouses  and 
employ  teachers/ 

At  a  meeting  in  Hartford  on  June  2,  1773,  the  Sus- 
quehanna Company  drew  up  a  set  of  articles  which  was 
accepted  by  the  settlers  who  went  into  Pennsylvania.' 
The  preamble  of  the  articles  set  forth  that  since  the 
lands  into  which  the  Connecticut  people  were  about  to 
move  were  claimed  by  both  Pennsylvania  and  Con- 
necticut, and  advices  had  not  been  received  from  Great 
Britain  as  to  which  had  the  real  title,  therefore  no  civil 
authority  existed  in  said  settlement,  and  all  sorts  of  dis- 
orders were  liable  to  arise.  The  first  article  professed 
allegiance  to  the  king ;  the  second  bound  the  signers  to 
obey  the  laws  of  Connecticut  as  faithfully  as  if  they 
actually  resided  within  the  borders  of  that  colony.  By 
the  third  article  the  settlers  in  each  town  promised  to 
choose  immediately  after  their  arrival  three  directors  to 
take  upon  themselves  the  regulation  of  town  afPairs, 
subject  to  the  general  orders  of  the  Susquehanna  Com- 
pany, and  one  person  was  to  be  chosen  as  constable, 
with  the  same  powers  that  such  an  officer  would  have 
in  Connecticut.  These  directors  were  to  meet  once  a 
month  or  oftener  for  the  transaction  of  business  and 
to  impose  fines  and  punishments  on  offenders  as  might 
be  needed.  The  directors  of  aU  the  towns  were  ordered 
to  meet  once  in  three  months  for  conference,  and  to  act 
as  a  sort  of  court  of  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  the 

*  Jadea,  Charleston,  and  Muncy,  three  towns  planted  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Susquehanna,  were  all  broken  up  by  the  Pennsylvania  government 
in  1775. 

»  Miner,  Hist  of  Wyoming^  146-150. 


y 


/ 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  123 

directors  of  any  one  town ;  and  there  was  to  be  no  'ap- 
peal from  these  directors  in  general  conference  to  the  Sus- 
quehanna Company  save  in  land  disputes.  The  directors  at 
this  meeting  were  also  to  elect  a  sheriff  for  the  whole  set- 
tlement, to  whom  the  inhabitants  were  to  submit  as  to  the 
high  sheriff  in  a  Connecticut  county.  For  serious  crimes 
the  offender  was  to  be  banished  and  his  goods  confiscated 
by  the  town  wherein  the  offense  was  committed.  The 
tenth  and  eleventh  articles  provided  for  the  election  of 
constables  and  directors  by  male  settlers  twenty-one 
years  of  age  and  one  proprietor  in  each  town ;  for  the 
preparation  by  the  directors  of  lists  of  ratable  polls  and 
estates,  and  for  general  taxation  according  to  such 
schedules.  Finally  these  twelve  articles  are  declared 
binding  "  until  the  colony  of  Connecticut  shall  annex 
us  to  one  of  the  counties  of  this  colony,  or  make  us  a 
distinct  county,  or  we  obtain  from  the  said  colony,  or 
from  his  Gracious  Majesty,  King  George  the  Third, 
whose  true  and  loyal  subjects  we  are,  powers  of  govern- 
ment in  some  more  permanent  method."  All  settlers 
were  required  to  sign  these  articles  as  a  warrant  of 
their  acceptance  of  them.  This  agreement  is  most  sig- 
nificant as  an  instance  of  the  removal  of  institutions 
hand  in  hand  with  the  removal  of  the  people  who  were 
to  live  under  them  ;  and  of  the  fact  that  the  new  colony 
was  regarded  as  but  an  extension  of  the  older  one,  later 
to  be  incorporated  under  its  general  government.  This 
incorporation  was  accomplished  by  an  act  of  January, 
1774,  by  which  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut 
erected  all  the  territory  within  her  charter  limits,  from 
the  Delaware  River  to  a  line  fifteen  miles  west  of  the 


124  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Susquehanna,  into  a  town,  with  all  the  powers  of  a  cor- 
porate town  in  Connecticut.  It  was  to  be  called  West- 
moreland, and  be  attached  to  Litchfield  County.  Two 
justices  of  the  peace  were  commissioned  and  directed 
to  call  a  town-meeting  for  the  purpose  of  electing  local 
officers.  The  whole  town,  which  was  about  seventy 
miles  square,  was  redivided  into  townships  five  or  six 
miles  square,  each  of  which  was  to  make  rules  and  by- 
laws for  itself  by  which  its  internal  affairs  should  be 
regulated.  The  Connecticut  programme  was  carried  out 
exactly  as  it  was  planned :  Westmoreland,  which  now 
contained  1922  inhabitants,  held  its  first  town-meeting, 
and  subdivided  the  town  into  eight  districts  shortly 
after.*  That  year  seven  other  town-meetings  were  held, 
and  the  organization  was  completed.  Selectmen,  a  trea- 
surer, constables,  a  surveyor  of  highways,  fence  viewers, 
grand  jurors,  —  all  these  and  the  rest  of  the  officers  of 
a  Connecticut  town  were  elected ;  and  in  April  four 
deputies  were  chosen  to  go  to  the  General  Assembly  at 
Hartford,  regardless  of  the  distance  and  the  intervening 
colonies.^  Westmoreland  was  in  the  minds  of  the  Con- 

*  Miner,  Hist,  of  Wyoming,  152-156.  The  eight  sub-townships  were 
Wilkesbarre,  Hanover,  Plymouth,  Kingston,  Pittston,  the  North  district 
(containing  Exeter  and  Providence),  the  Lackaway  district  (with  three 
settlements),  and  the  East  district  (comprising  Cushetunck,  and  all  the 
settlements  on  the  Delaware). 

2  Miner,  Hist,  of  Wyomingy  156-159.  The  names  of  some  of  the  offi- 
cers chosen  are  Connecticut  ones,  —  Haskel,  Tracey,  Gaylord,  Sills,  Butler, 
and  Chapman.  The  names  of  the  Westmoreland  towns  are  interesting 
to  study  :  Exeter,  Kingston,  Providence,  and  Newport  suggest  Rhode 
Island  pioneers.  Lebanon,  Colchester,  Plainfield,  Lyme,  Kent,  Norwich, 
Voluntown,  and  a  dozen  more  Connecticut  towns  had  sent  settlers  into 
Westmoreland  before  1773.  See  Pearce,  Annals  of  Luzerne  County,  184- 
218  ;  and  Miner,  Hist,  of  Wyoming^  App.,  12-61. 


TtRS.    EKCIS,,    BOtTOIl 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  125 

nectlcut  people  quite  as  much  a  part  of  the  old  colony 
as  if  it  had  lain  on  her  border  :  it  was  but  an  extension 
of  her  lands  to  take  it  in.^ 

The  Lackaway  settlement  deserves  a  word.  Here  came 
Connecticut  settlers  in  1774,  to  settle  the  townships  of 
Lackaway  and  Bozrah.  A  fort  was  erected  at  once,  with 
a  blockhouse  inside  it ;  then  a  civil,  military,  and  ec- 
clesiastical form  of  government  was  chosen.  A  justice 
of  the  peace,  who  had  a  commission  supposedly  from 
Connecticut,  was  selected  first ;  then  a  constable  and  a 
tithing-man.  After  four  years  the  settlement  was  broken 
up,  and  the  settlers  fled  either  to  Orange  County,  New 
York,  to  Connecticut,  or  to  the  Delaware.  After  the 
Kevolution,  however,  the  original  settlers  returned  and 
again  took  up  their  old  homes.^ 

An  enterprise  allied  with  the  Susquehanna  Company's 
project  was  that  of  the  so-called  Phineas  Lyman  colony. 
Phineas  Lyman  of  Suffield,  Connecticut,  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Susquehanna  Company  when  in  1755 

^  See  map  opposite. 

2  Miner,  Hist,  of  Wyoming,  466-475.  Their  descendants  are  said  to  have 
retained  to  this  day  the  peculiar  features  of  person  and  character  which 
distinguished  the  first  settlers.  Ibid.,  476.  Pennsylvania  local  history,  ex- 
cept where  the  Germans  are  concerned,  has  had  but  slight  attention.  One 
cannot  help  feeling  that  if  more  work  were  done,  the  extent  of  the  Con- 
necticut settlement  would  be  found  to  be  much  greater  than  this  investi- 
gation shows.  A  glance  at  the  map  reveals  a  Canaan,  a  Lebanon,  a  Berlin, 
a  Preston,  a  New  Milford,  a  Warren,  a  Windham,  a  Litchfield,  a  Gran- 
ville, a  Shrewsbury,  a  Union,  a  Brookfield,  a  Farmington,  a  Westfield,  — 
every  one  the  name  of  a  Connecticut  town  ;  to  say  nothing  of  a  Salem,  a 
Smithfield,  a  Lenox,  a  Canton,  —  all  of  which  immediately  suggest  either 
Rhode  Island  or  Massachusetts.  The  coincidences  are  too  numerous  to  be 
accidental ;  yet  data  are  lacking  from  which  one  can  prove  the  New  Eng- 
land origin  of  these  towns  and  others. 


126  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

that  body  had  petitioned  the  General  Assembly  of  Con- 
necticut for  a  grant  of  land  in  northeastern  Pennsyl- 
vania. Lyman  had  served  in  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  and  about  1763  went  to  England  to  solicit  recog- 
nition and  reward  for  the  services  he  with  his  fellow 
officers  and  soldiers  had  rendered.  In  the  name  of  a 
company  called  the  "  Military  Adventurers "  he  peti- 
tioned for  a  grant  of  land  in  Mississippi  on  the  Yazoo 
River.  It  is  not  certain  that  he  actually  obtained  a  grant, 
but  he  evidently  thought  the  promises  made  him  were 
sufficiently  encouraging  to  warrant  him  in  returning  to 
America  and  setting  his  colonization  schemes  on  foot.^ 
Ruf us  Putnam,  surveyor  for  the  new  colony  and  later 
prominently  connected  with  a  great  emigration  to  south- 
ern Ohio,  in  his  account  of  the  exploration  made  in  1773 
by  a  committee  acting  for  the  company,  says  their  re- 
port as  to  the  character  of  the  soil  and  climate  was  so 
favorable  that  in  the  fall  of  that  year  several  hundred 
families  from  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  departed 
for  Mississippi.  During  1773-74  more  than  four  hun- 
dred families  made  the  journey,  some  going  by  sea, 
others  by  flatboats  down  the  Ohio,  and  still  others 
through  Tennessee.  Nearly  every  town  up  and  down 
the  Connecticut  River  furnished  families  for  the  enter- 
prise, and  the  passenger  lists  given  by  Phelps  in  his 
memoir  are  in  the  nature  of  a  directory  of  well-known 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  names ;  —  for  instance, 

*  Justin  Winsor  (^Westward  Movement^  28,  42)  says  that  General  Ly- 
man had  a  plan,  which  he  laid  before  Lord  Shelburne,  for  establishing  colo- 
nies all  along  the  Mississippi  River  from  West  Florida  to  St.  Anthony's 
Falls. 


90     Longitude  West     85    from  Greenwich    go 


PETERS,    ENCRS,,    SOSTOH 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  127 

Comstock,  Sheldon,  Wolcott,  Weed,  Crane,  Bowen, 
Knapp,  Phelps,  Bradley,  Case,  Hotchkiss,  and  Ellsworth. 
Suffield,  Windsor,  Hartford,  Springfield,  Wethersfield, 
Middletown,  Northampton,  and  many  other  towns  were 
represented.  The  colony  moved  in  the  traditional  man- 
ner, with  a  minister  at  their  head.  Between  the  time  of 
their  departure  from  New  England  and  their  arrival  in 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  an  order  from  the  king  in  council 
was  received  by  the  governor  of  West  Florida,  in  whose 
jurisdiction  they  intended  to  live,  forbidding  the  grant 
of  more  land,  either  by  family  right  or  by  purchase, 
until  further  orders.  As  a  consequence,  the  emigrants 
were  dismayed  to  find  upon  their  arrival  that  they  could 
occupy  land  only  as  "  squatters,"  with  every  chance  of 
being  dispossessed  later.  They  finally  determined  to  carry 
out  their  project,  and  seventeen  miles  up  the  Big  Black 
River,  above  the  old  French  town  of  Natchez,  the  site 
for  a  town  was  selected.^  Illness  overtook  many,  among 
them  General  Lyman  himself,  and  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  put  an  end  to  further  additions  to  the 
colony.  There  are,  however,  many  families  of  New 
England  origin  in  and  about  Natchez  to-day.^ 

Still  another  emigration  to  the  south  belongs  to  the 
years  just  preceding  the  Revolution.  About  1760  the 
settlement  of  Guilford  County,  North  Carolina,  was  be- 

^  See  map  opposite. 

2  S.  P.  Hildreth,  Pioneer  Settlers  of  Ohio,  53,  says  :  "  In  the  year  1802, 
the  survivors  of  that  company  [the  Military  Adventurers]  about  one  hun- 
dred in  number,  reorganized  themselves,  and  petitioned  Congress  for  a 
confirmation  of  their  old  grant,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  anything  was 
done  for  them  ;  and  thus  ended  this  famous  land  adventure,  which  at  the 
time  caused  a  good  deal  of  excitement  in  New  England." 


128  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

gun  ^  in  the  southern  and  western  parts  by  Quakers  from 
Pennsylvania  and  from  Nantucket  Island.  The  family 
of  William  Starbuck  left  Nantucket  in  1771 ;  several 
families,  among  them  at  least  one  named  Coffin,  settled 
in  New  Garden  in  1773,  and  Elihu  Swain's  family  came 
in  1776.^  At  that  time  there  was  no  slavery  in  the  west- 
ern counties  of  North  Carolina  ;  as  the  institution  began 
to  spread  inland,  the  Quakers,  who  hated  it,  moved 
gradually  to  the  west, — to  Jefferson,  Blount,  Greene,  and 
Sevier  counties,  on  the  eastern  border  of  Tennessee; 
and  later  to  Ohio  and  to  Indiana.^ 

Such  was  the  history  of  the  frontier  line  up  to  the 
time  when  the  Revolutionary  War  called  forth  many  an 
able-bodied  young  man  who  in  the  time  of  peace  would 
have  set  off  for  the  wilderness  to  make  a  clearing  and 
build  a  log-cabin.  Ethan  Allen  of  Vermont  and  his 
*^  Green  Mountain  boys  "  formed  but  one  of  the  many 
bands  of  backwoodsmen  who  enlisted  on  the  side  of 
the  colonies  in  what  was  essentially  a  frontier  struggle. 
For  England  and  the  English  Parliament  were  still  of 
the  opinion  that  a  conservative  administration  of  the 

*  It  then  included  the  present  counties  of  Randolph  and  Rockingham. 
See  Wheeler,  North  Carolina,  ii  (bound  with  i),  170. 

2  Some  of  the  Quaker  branch  of  the  Doaue  family,  originally  from 
Massachusetts,  but  at  this  time  living  in  Pennsylvania,  moved  to  Cane 
Creek,  Chatham  County,  North  Carolina,  in  1753.  See  The  Doane  Fam- 
ily, 123,  124,  223,  224. 

3  The  literature  of  this  movement  is  to  be  found  largely  in  the  best 
genealogies  of  the  families  concerned  in  it.  See  Levi  Coffin,  Reminiscences 
(Cincinnati,  1876),  in  the  Howe  Collection,  Indianapolis  (Indiana)  Public 
Library.  See,  also.  The  Doane  Family,  and  Tucker's  History  of  Randolph 
County,  Indiana,  where  sketches  of  the  early  settlers  are  given.  See  map 
on  page  199. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  129 

whole  kingdom  (including  such  outlying  portions  as 
those  in  North  America)  could  be  best  carried  out  from 
London  by  means  of  virtual  representation.  More  than 
two  centuries  of  local  government  by  their  own  dele- 
gates had  made  the  acceptance  of  such  a  policy  impos- 
sible to  the  colonies ;  and  when  with  this  grievance  were 
combined  others  of  an  undeniably  frontier  character,  — 
economic  as  well  as  social,  —  the  inevitable  result  was  a 
resort  to  arms.  As  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars  of 
the  preceding  century,  so  again  in  the  Revolution,  it 
was  the  outlying  districts  which  felt  the  hard  fortunes 
of  war.  In  Vermont  the  people  of  the  village  of  Panton 
were  either  made  prisoners,  or  had  to  return  to  their 
former  homes  in  Cornwall  or  the  Nine  Partners  tract 
on  the  Hudson  River.  Other  towns — Whiting,  Middle- 
bury,  Monkton,  Brandon,  and  their  neighbors  in  the 
north  and  west — were  abandoned,  or  so  threatened  with 
misfortunes  that  no  new  settlers  came  in.  On  the  other 
hand,  settlement  did  not  wholly  cease  even  amid  the 
uncertainties  of  war.  Four  new  towns  in  Vermont  were 
actually  begun  in  1776 ;  five  in  1777-78 ;  and  six  in 
1779.^  A  company  was  formed  in  1778  at  Hanover, 
New  Hampshire,  to  purchase  the  township  of  Randolph, 
and  secured  settlers  from  Vermont,  New  Hampshire, 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  towns.    Another  com- 

^Tunbridge  was  begun  by  New  Hampshire  men  who  did  not  bring 
their  families  for  several  months  ;  Peacham  had  settlers  from  Haverhill, 
HoUis,  and  Concord,  New  Hampshire  ;  Andover  was  a  new  home  for  En- 
field emigrants  ;  and  Colchester  harbored  New  London  and  Woodbury 
settlers,  who  departed  between  1776  and  1783,  but  returned  in  the  latter 
year  and  renewed  the  town.  Three  families  moved  from  Hardwick  to 
Somerset  in  1777,  and  eighteen  farms  in  Brookline  were  laid  off  between 


130  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

pany^  also  from  Hanover,  in  the  same  year  petitioned 
for  and  received  a  grant  of  Bethel.  Evidently  there 
were  able-bodied  men  who  had  managed  to  escape  the 
horrors  of  warfare  and  who  kept  on  in  their  ordinary 
walks  of  life,  bettering  their  condition  rather  than  suf- 
fering from  the  hard  times.  All  the  colonies  suffered, 
however.  Several  Maine  towns  were  abandoned,  and 
many  were  retarded  by  the  war.  Belfast  was  a  waste 
from  1779  till  1785;  Brewer,  from  1779  to  1784; 
Hampden,  from  1779  to  1783.  Yet  here,  as  in  Ver- 
mont, settlement  went  on,  —  three  towns  were  planted 
in  1776,  three  in  1777,  four  in  1779.  In  New  Hamp- 
shire four  new  towns  were  begun. 

Upon  the  Wyoming  Valley  settlements  in  Pennsyl- 
vania fell  the  most  terrible  blow  of  all,  —  the  massacre 
of  1778,  laying  waste  the  beautiful  lands  which  had 
been  settled  in  1773,  and  which  the  labor  of  the  pio- 
neers had  rendered  even  more  productive  than  they  were 
by  nature.  Those  who  escaped  fled  in  every  direction, 
—  to  New  York  State,  to  Connecticut,  to  southern 
Pennsylvania,  —  leaving  only  a  few  families  in  the 
whole  Westmoreland  tract.  Slowly,  in  1779-80,  the 
survivors  crept  back  to  rebuild  their  houses  and  to  retill 
the  soil.  Sullivan's  campaign,  which  was  undertaken  as 
a  punishment  for  the  Indians,  made  his  soldiers  ac- 
quainted with  the  region,  and  after  1780  many  who  be- 
gan homes  here  under  the  Connecticut  title  were  joined 

1777  and  1780,  the  first  settler  paying  twenty  cents  an  acre  for  his  tract. 
Hollis  Town  in  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.,  v,  pt.  ii,  530  (article  on  Somerset), 
says  the  first  settler  paid  about  $640  for  670  acres,  but  this  may  have 
been  in  depreciated  currency.  The  statement  quoted  is  C.  P.  Stickney's 
in  "  Brookline,"  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.,  v,  pt.  ii,  377. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  131 

by  settlers  from  New  York,  some  of  whom  were  only 
"  squatters."  The  roads  which  were  opened  up  hastened 
the  tide  of  incoming  migration  from  New  England,  as 
well  as  from  Bedford,  Luzerne,  and  other  Pennsylvania 
counties. 

By  1780  the  tide,  which  had  only  ebbed  during  the 
preceding  four  years,  flowed  out  again  to  the  north  as 
well  as  to  the  west.  Nine  new  Maine  towns  begun  in 
1780,  two  the  next  year,  show  the  tendency.  Only  three 
New  Hampshire  towns  were  planted  in  1780-81;  but 
twelve  Vermont  villages  in  1780,  four  in  1781, — these 
mark  the  turning  of  the  tide.  The  coming  of  peace  merely 
accelerated  the  flow  which  actual  warfare  had  but  tem- 
porarily and  partially  checked.  A  new  era  of  prosper- 
ity seemed  just  dawning,  and  with  the  removal  of  such 
restraints  as  the  English  acts  of  1763  and  1774  had  im- 
posed, to  say  nothing  of  the  overlapping  titles  of  the  in- 
accurate colonial  charters,  there  came  a  veritable  rush  of 
pioneering  to  the  north  and  (a  still  more  important  phase) 
to  the  Far  West.  Beyond  the  Alleghanies  such  advent- 
urers as  Daniel  Boone*  had  led  the  march  before  the 
Revolution ;  now  the  more  conservative  New  Englanders 
followed  in  their  wake.  1/ 

A  few  phases  of  the  aftermath  of  the  Revolution  are 
an  interesting  study.  With  the  hard  life  incident  to  fron- 
tier conditions,  there  had  grown  up  in  some  parts  of  New 
England   a  carelessness  concerning  some   institutions 

^  Ex-president  Theodore  Roosevelt,  in  his  studies  of  pioneering,  The 
Winning  of  the  West  (4  vols.),  has  taken  up  the  pre-Revolutionary  move- 
ment in  a  most  interesting  way.  Justin  Winsor,  in  The  Westward  Move- 
ment,  covers  somewhat  the  same  ground. 


132  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

which  were  traditionally  very  dear  to  the  descendant  of 
the  Puritans.  New  Hampshire,  for  example,  had  become 
notoriously  remiss  concerning  the  enforcement  of  her 
laws  for  education.  The  old  laws  had  been  those  of 
Massachusetts,  and  made  the  requirement  that  every 
town  of  one  hundred  families  support  a  grammar  school. 
When  the  towns  were  few,  care  was  taken  to  fulfill  the 
requirement;  but  some  towns  stood  out  conspicuously  as 
being  uniformly  negligent  in  the  matter  of  education. 
In  1722  some  frontier  towns  petitioned  to  be  relieved 
from  supporting  a  grammar  school  during  the  war.  Dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  not  only  those,  but  many  large  and 
prosperous  towns,  were  for  a  long  time  without  any  schools 
whatever,  and  the  result  is  said  to  have  been  disastrous 
alike  to  education  and  to  moral  standards.^  In  1781 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy  was  founded,  very  largely  be- 
cause of  the  woeful  neglect  of  education  in  New  Hamp- 
shire. Its  effect  was  to  stimulate  education,  and  by  its 
success  to  induce  the  foundation  of  others,  like  those  at 
New  Ipswich,  Amherst,  Atkinson,  and  Concord.  ^  But  a 

»  Belknap,  Hist,  of  New  Hampshire,  iii,  289,  290. 

*  Ibid.,  290-293.  Connecticut  men  also  began  to  establish  academies,  not 
because  education  was  neglected,  but  rather  to  stimulate  it,  especially  in 
the  matter  of  raising  the  standard  of  instruction.  Hitherto,  while  public 
schools  had  been  encouraged,  any  attempt  to  open  a  school  which  would 
not  be  under  colonial  inspection  was  decidedly  frowned  down.  Toward  the 
end  of  its  pre-Revolutionary  history,  however,  private  academies  began  to 
spring  up  ;  the  academy  at  Lebanon,  established  in  1743  by  Governor 
Trumbull,  was  kept  by  a  Harvard  graduate,  Nathaniel  Tisdale,  for  more 
than  thirty  years.  Under  an  act  of  incorporation  from  the  General  Court, 
twelve  proprietors  opened  the  "Union  School  of  New  London "  in  1774, 
to  fit  young  men  for  college.  Nathan  Hale  was  its  principal  when  the  war 
broke  out,  and  from  his  schoolroom  he  went  to  give  his  life  for  the  patriot 
cause.  See  B.  C.  Steiner,  Hist,  of  Education  in  Connecticut^  31,  32,  34. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  133 

sign  which  was  even  more  hopeful  for  the  future  devel- 
opment of  New  Hampshire  on  the  educational  side  was 
the  founding  of  Dartmouth  College.  It  was  but  fitting 
that  in  a  colony  where  so  great  a  number  of  the  inhabit- 
ants were  originally  from  Connecticut,  Yale  College 
should  contribute  a  large  share  to  the  founding  and  the 
history  of  a  new  institution  which  was  bound  to  be  more 
or  less  like  that  at  New  Haven.  The  founder  of  Dart- 
mouth, Kev.  Eleazar  Wheelock,  was  a  Windham  (Con- 
necticut) boy,  who  was  also  a  Yale  graduate.^  As  early  as 
1763  Wheelock  had  besought  General  Phineas  Lyman  to 
include  a  tract  for  a  college  in  the  Natchez  grant,  but  in 
1770,  after  a  varied  history,  the  college  was  established 
at  Hanover,  New  Hampshire,  where  fifty-five  of  the 
sixty-eight  shares  in  the  town  had  been  assigned  to  set- 
tlers from  Windham,  Connecticut.  In  its  early  years 
Dartmouth  College  graduates  were  often  Connecticut 
youths;  in  1772  both  graduates  came  from  that  col- 
ony; in  1773  five  of  the  six  in  the  class;  in  1774,  two 
in  eight;  in  1775,  eight  in  eleven;  in  1779,  eleven  in 
seventeen;  in  1785,  nine  in  nineteen.  "In  all,  of  the  284 
graduates  up  to  1790,  121  came  from  Connecticut,  and 
22  from  the  town  of  Lebanon  alone,  where  Wheelock 
had  formerly  preached. "  But  the  majority  of  the  stu- 
dents were  from  New  Hampshire,  and  into  the  history 
of  that  state  the  traditions  and  ideals  of  Dartmouth  are 
woven. 

The  years  just  preceding  the  Revolution  were  fruit- 
ful ones  in  developing  a  spirit  of  liberty  in  all  the 
colonies,  but  most  radically  upon  the  frontier,  where 

*  Frederick  Chase,  Hist,  of  Dartmouth  College,  1. 


134  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  settlers  were  unhampered  by  conventional  views. 
Troubles  arose  in  new  towns  of  New  Hampshire,  Ver- 
mont, and  Massachusetts  between  proprietors  and 
settlers,  the  latter  complaining  that  the  former  were 
absentees,  and,  not  knowing  local  conditions,  had  re- 
fused to  help  pay  for  improvements  such  as  roads  and 
bridges.  The  inhabitants  of  Gilmanton  in  1770  peti- 
tioned the  General  Court  relative  to  a  road,  complain- 
ing that  the  proprietors  had  not  aided  in  making  it/ 
Those  of  New  Chester  asked  leave  to  tax  non-resident 
proprietors  for  the  repairing  of  a  road,^  as  did  Hills- 
borough, Lyman,  and  Warren.^  The  grantees  of  Maid- 
stone, Vermont,  were  all  Connecticut  men,  not  one  of 
whom  ever  became  an  inhabitant  of  the  town  ;  com- 
plaints were  frequent,  especially  concerning  the  neces- 
sity of  going  to  Connecticut  or  New  York  if  a  prospect- 
ive settler  wanted  to  buy  land.  Finally,  the  matter  was 
adjusted  by  holding  proprietary  meetings  by  proxy  in 
Maidstone  after  1779,  by  the  allotment  of  lands  a  few 
years  later,  and  by  the  appointment  of  agents  resident 
in  Maidstone  who  were  competent  to  transact  business 
for  the  absentee  landlords.* 

The  trouble  at  Westminster,  Massachusetts,  deserves 
notice  at  length.^  Here  some  of  the  proprietors  were 
also  settlers,  but  the  majority  were  non-resident,  and 
refused  either  to  make  the  improvements  which  the 

*  Hammond,  Toum  Papers,  xii,  3,  4. 

2  Ibid.y  200.  The  town  is  now  called  Hill. 
8  Ibid.,  206,  499  ;  xiii,  625. 

*  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.,  i,  1026. 

*  W.  S.  Hey  wood,  «  Westminster,"  in  Hist,  qf  Worcester  Co.,  ii,  1148, 
1149. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  135 

settlers  demanded,  or  to  induce  outsiders  to  take  up 
homes  on  their  land.  For  ten  years  the  struggle  was 
waged,  with  the  victories  on  the  side  of  the  non-resid- 
ents, who  held  their  meetings  in  Cambridge  or  nearby 
towns,  where  the  residents  of  Westminster  could  not 
go,  but  where  the  non-residents  were  at  home.  Many 
proposals  which  seemed  to  the  settlers  essential  to  their 
comfort  and  prosperity  were  voted  down  at  Cambridge ; 
and  any  attempt  to  hold  meetings  at  Westminster  was 
as  promptly  checked.  Finally,  the  last  resort  was 
reached,  and  an  appeal  for  redress  was  made  to  the 
legislature  by  the  resident  proprietors.  The  petition 
was  granted,  and  meetings  were  ordered  to  be  held  in 
the  township  after  1749.  Thereafter  the  residents  were 
in  the  majority,  as  the  non-residents  could  not  go  to 
Westminster  for  the  meetings.  Most  of  the  officers  of 
the  proprietary  organization  were  now  elected  from  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town,  and  improvements  were  pushed 
rapidly,  especially  the  making  of  roads.  From  130  in 
1750,  the  population  increased  to  350  in  1760.  But  as 
soon  as  the  population  had  grown  to  that  number,  the 
desire  to  be  altogether  free  of  non-resident  proprietors 
and  to  be  a  corporate  town  led  to  the  drawing  up  of 
a  petition  signed  by  thirty-two  men,  asking  the  General 
Court  for  incorporation.  The  act  was  passed  on  October 
20,  1759,  and  the  strife  between  proprietors  and  settlers 
was  at  an  end. 

A  similar  struggle,  this  time  between  a  state  and 
a  district  which  aspired  to  statehood,  came  between 
New  York  and  Vermont.  Originally  claimed  by  all 
three  of  her  neighbors,  —  New  York,  New  Hampshire, 


136  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  Massachusetts,  —  the  history  of  Vermont  had  been 
one  of  conflicting  titles  and  an  uncertain  future.  When, 
in  July,  1777,  it  became  necessary  to  set  up  some  form 
of  government,  Vermont  aspired  to  independent  state- 
hood, and  made  her  grievances  known  along  with  her 
determination  to  be  free  of  her  previous  restrictions. 
Her  declaration  of  independence  (for  so  it  may  be 
called)  is  strongly  suggestive  of  the  national  document 
of  1776,  which  was  probably  a  powerful  incentive  to 
Vermont  to  assert  her  freedom.* 

Maine,  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  Pennsylvania, 
North  Carolina,  Mississippi,  —  all  these  states  had 
afforded  homes  to  emigrants  from  their  neighbor  states, 
and  their  growth  in  the  thirty  years  ending  in  1781 
was  little  short  of  marvelous.^  Although  the  history  of 
settlement  since  1754  had  been  one  of  alternate  flow  and 
ebb  of  the  tide  of  population,  the  period  had  upon  the 
whole  been  one  of  expansion.  People,  churches,  town- 
meetings,  schools,  had  traveled  in  company,  giving  to 
new  towns  a  lasting  resemblance  to  the  old  ones  along 
the  coast.  Yet  differences  were  becoming  more  and 
more  apparent ;  Vermont  owed  much  of  its  increase  of 
population  to  New  York,  whose  emigrants  were  unlike 
the  Connecticut  frontiersmen  whose  log  cabins  stood 
next  to  their  own.  Although  the  household  from  Nine 
Partners  had  in  its  family  history  the  names  of  an- 
cestors who  had  lived  in  Connecticut,  Long  Island,  and 
New  Jersey,  and  traditions  of  New  England  still  sur- 

*  A  good  summary  of  this  document  is  given  by  Professor  Max  Farrand 
in  an  article  in  the  Yale  Review^  May,  1908,  entitled  "  The  West  and  the 
Principles  of  the  Revolution." 

'  See  map  opposite. 


PITtRS.    fNCRS.. 


^li 


Of 


'ry 


WIA. 


THE  FRONTIER  IN  WAR  AND  IN  PEACE  137 

vived  many  transplantings,  nevertheless,  the  generations 
of  frontier  life  in  four  different  colonies  must  have  left 
their  impress  and  given  the  Vermont  youth  an  outlook 
not  exactly  like  that  of  the  lad  from  Connecticut  who 
had  always  lived  under  the  shadow  of  the  old  colony 
church  and  school.  It  was  on  this  common  ground  that 
the  diverse  elements  could  meet,  —  they  could  all  work 
together  to  form  a  new  state  upon  the  lines  which 
conservatism  and  radicalism  combined  should  dic- 
tate ;  and  altogether  they  could  move  on  again  to  join 
other  workers  in  the  wilderness  stretching  out  into  the 
west. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

The  sources  of  Vermont  history  have  been  enumerated  for  the  most 
part  in  preceding  notes.  A  few  local  histories  ought,  however,  to  be  enu- 
merated especially  :  A.  M.  Caverly,  History  of  .  ,  .  Pittsford  (Rutland, 
1872)  ;  H.  S.  Dana,  History  of  Woodstock  (Boston  and  New  York,  1889); 
Isaac  Jennings,  Memorials  of  a  Century  (the  early  history  of  Bennington) ; 
Rev.  Silas  McKeen,  History  of  Bradford  (Montpelier,  1875) ;  and  Samuel 
Swift,  History  of .  .  .  Middlehury  (Middlebury,  1859.) 

The  story  of  New  England  in  Pennsylvania  will  be  found  in  Sherman 
Day's  Historical  Collections  .  .  .  of  Pennsylvania,  which  is  on  the  plan  of 
Barber's  work  for  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  but  is  not  so  good. 
Charles  Miner's  History  of  Wyoming  (Philadelphia,  1845),  though  not 
well  organized,  is  the  standard  for  the  territory  it  covers.  W.  H.  Egle, 
Illustrated  History  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  (Harrisburg, 
1876),  has  good  material  on  local  history.  The  Pennsylvania  Archives 
(First  Series,  12  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1852-1856)  contains  documents  which 
can  be  well  supplemented  from  the  Connecticut  Colonial  Records  and  from 
the  Minutes  of  the  Provincial  Council  of  Pennsylvania  (cited  usually  as 
Colonial  Records),  in  16  vols.,  with  an  index  volume  (Philadelphia  and 
Harrisburg,  1851-60).  Stewart  Pearce's  Annals  of  Luzerne  County  and 
H.  B.  Wright's  Historical  Sketches  of  Plymouth^  Luzerne  County,  con- 
tain material  not  found  elsewhere.  On  the  whole,  the  historians  of  Penn- 


138  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

sylvania  have  been  more  interested  in  the  story  of  Germans,  Quakers, 
and  Scotch-Irish  than  in  that  of  the  Puritans. 

For  the  Lyman  colony  the  following  are  the  chief  sources  of  informa- 
tion :  Pennsylvania  Archives^  ii,  303,  for  Lyman's  connection  with  the 
Susquehanna  Company  ;  Dr.  S.  P.  Hildreth,  Biographical  and  Historical 
Memoirs  of  the  Early  Pioneer  Settlers  of  Ohioy  gives  Rufus  Putnam's 
graphic  account  of  the  colony  ;  Dr.  Lyman  Coleman,  Genealogy  of  the 
Lyman  Family  (Albany,  1872)  ;  Timothy  Dwight,  Travels  in  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York  (4  vols.,  New  Haven,  1821-22),  in  his  first  volume 
gives  his  account  of  Lyman's  scheme  ;  and  Anthony  Haswell's  edition  of 
the  Memoirs  and  Adventures  of  Captain  Matthew  Phelps  (Bennington, 
Vermont,  1802)  is  by  a  member  of  the  ill-fated  expedition. 

The  somewhat  meagre  material  on  the  emigration  from  Nantucket  to 
North  Carolina  has  been  indicated  in  a  footnote. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   BEGINNING    OF    THE   GREAT    MIGRATIONS   FROM 

NEW    ENGLAND    TOWARD    THE    WEST 

1781-1812 

It  was  evident  by  1782  that  the  war  between  England 
^nd  her  American  colonies  was,  to  all  practical  intents, 
a  victory  for  the  latter,  and  that  the  time  intervening 
between  the  defeat  of  Cornwallis  and  the  making  of  a 
treaty  of  peace  would  be  employed  only  in  arranging 
details  as  to  the  final  settlement  of  territorial  claims. 
That  the  new  nation  just  forming  as  the  United  States 
of  America  would  extend  to  the  Mississippi  River  was 
not  a  foregone  conclusion,  yet  there  seemed  to  be  no 
reason  why  emigrants  should  be  restrained  any  longer 
from  settling  on  the  lands  just  ceded  to  the  general 
government  as  the  price  of  a  constitution.  Expansion 
had  not  ceased  during  the  struggle  between  the  armies 
of  the  mother  country  and  the  colonies ;  new  towns  had 
been  planted  farther  north  each  year,  though  settlements 
on  the  very  edge  of  civilization  had  been  temporarily 
depopulated;  but  the  movement  away  from  the  more 
densely  peopled  states  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
and  Rhode  Island  was  greatly  accelerated  by  the  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities  and  the  enforced  peace  which  drove 
the  Indians  back  beyond  the  borders  of  cultivated  land. 
In  all  directions  the  stream  of  emigration  from  the 
settled  portions  of  New  England  poured  forth  in  1782, 


140  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

—  to  the  north,  the  northeast,  to  the  west,  all  at  the 
same  time,  from  the  same  sources,  and  for  the  same 
reasons.  It  was  natural  that  the  first  expansion  should 
follow  rather  closely  the  movement  of  the  old,  and  one 
finds  new  towns  first  planted  beyond  the  ones  last  settled, 
in  the  states  just  north  of  Massachusetts.^  There  was  little 
unoccupied  land  in  New  Hampshire,  and  that  little  gave 
but  small  promise  of  future  fertility ;  yet  all  the  most 
rugged  and  mountainous  tracts  were  settled  slowly. 
Bethlehem,  for  example,  was  uninhabited  in  May,  1798, 
when  the  petition  for  a  grant  was  signed;  in  November 
of  the  same  year  the  request  for  the  incorporation  gave 
the  number  of  settlers  as  forty.  ^  Whitefield,  in  Coos^ 
County,  though  granted  in  1774,  was  not  settled  for 
twenty-seven  years,  but  was  incorporated  three  years 
after  it  was  settled.^  Over  Pittsburgh  in  the  same  county 
the  British  government  exercised  jurisdiction  till  the 
Webster- Ashburton  treaty  adjusted  the  boundary ;  fifty- 
five  people  settled  here  in  1810,  each  claiming  two 
hundred  acres  of  land,  some  of  it  consisting  of  rich  inter- 
vales. Cambridge  and  Dummer,  granted  in  1773,  were 
for  fifty  years  quite  unoccupied  by  reason  of  the  poor 
soil,  the  former  having  in  1850  but  thirty-five  inhabit- 
ants. The  population  of  the  whole  state  was,  in  1790, 
141,885;  in  1810,  234,460.^ 

In  Maine  the  population  increased  from  96,540  in 

*  Florida  was  the  only  new  town  settled  in  Massachusetts  ;  —  Erving, 
Monroe,  and  Webster  were  but  extensions  of  older  ones.  See  Holland, 
West.  Mass.,  ii,  362,  393,  489.  See  map  opposite. 

'  Hammond,  Town  Papers,  xi,  190-192. 
'  Hid.,  xiii,  648. 

*  Ninth  Census  Report,  i,  48. 


PfTcnt.  INOBS, 


^Bi«:^ 


OF 


THE 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  141 

1790  to  151,719  in  1800,  and  to  228,705  in  1810/ 
Many  of  the  pioneers  in  the  new  towns  came  from  the 
oldest  parts  of  Massachusetts,  from  Plymouth  County 
and  Cape  Cod ;  but  Andover  and  Denward  perpetuated 
Andover  in  Massachusetts.^  Dennysville  is  a  Hingham 
town  ;  New  Vineyard  was  peopled  from  Martha's  Vine- 
yard ;  Kingfield  from  Weymouth  and  Kingston.  Jay 
was  given  to  sixty-four  persons  in  payment  for  service 
in  the  French  and  Indian  War.^  New  Hampshire  families 
also  contributed  to  Maine  towns  ;^  —  New  Portland, 
Hermon,  Freedom,  Temple,  Garland,  Dexter,  Atkinson, 
Sebec,  Hartland,  and  other  towns  were  peopled  directly 
from  New  Hampshire,  and  Exeter  was  named  by  its  first 
settlers  from  their  former  home.  Maine  towns  sent  some 
of  their  own  people  as  pioneers  to  plant  new  homes  in 
Cutler,  Auburn,  Gouldsborough,  Pittsfield,  Jackson, 
Garland,  Brooks,  Greenwood,  and  many  other  villages. 
Where  land  was  but  twelve  and  one  half  cents  an  acre 
there  was  little  need  to  go  far  from  home  in  search  of  a 
new  farm.^  On  the  northern  and  eastern  boundaries 
immigration  turned  from  Canada  south,  to  settle  cheap 
1  im.,  35. 

'  Nine  tenths  of  the  first  settlers  of  Andover,  Maine,  were  from  Ando- 
ver, Massachusetts.  MS.  letter  of  J.  A.  Poor,  in  Williamson,  Maine,  ii, 
699,  n. 

^  Coolidge  and  Mansfield,  164.  It  long  bore  the  name  of  Phips's  Canada, 
from  Captain  Phips,  one  of  the  grantees.  When  it  was  laid  out  in  1785,  it 
was  divided  into  400-acre  shares,  of  which  one  was  reserved  for  Harvard 
College,  one  for  the  first  minister,  one  for  the  ministry,  and  one  for 
schools. 

*  The  material  on  Maine  is  found  almost  entirely  in  Coolidge  and 
Mansfield. 

6  This  was  the  price  of  land  in  Palmyra  in  1800.  MS.  letter  of  Samuel 
Lancy,  Williamson,  MainCf  ii,  609  n. 


142  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

lands,  as  at  Madawaska  Plantation,  which  was  begun  in 
1784  by  French  Canadians/ 

It  was  over  the  Wolfborough  road,  the  "  old  Brook- 
field  road,"  the  Coos  road,  and  by  blazed  trees  that 
settlers  found  their  way  into  central  and  northern 
Vermont.  The  Wolfborough  post-road  had  been  of  use 
during  the  Revolution,^  and  doubtless  had  led  the  way 
for  emigrants  who  heard  from  returning  soldiers  of  the 
country  it  opened  up  before  the  troops.  One  would  ex- 
pect Wethersfield  people  as  "chronic  pioneers"  to  follow 
up  the  Connecticut  to  begin  a  new  town ;  and  to  Middle- 
sex they  moved  in  1783.  The  ten  families  who  had  gone 
to  Addison  and  Panton  from  Connecticut  in  1770  had 
been  driven  away  during  the  war  and  their  homes  burned ; 
in  1783  most  of  them  returned  and  were  followed  speedily 
by  others.^  From  Suffield,  Litchfield,  Glastenbury, 
Wethersfield,  and  Hartford,  settlers  went  to  Benson.* 

*  Coolidge  and  Mansfield,  969.  In  1794  nineteen  new  towns  were  incor- 
porated, fifteen  of  which  had  been  plantations,  "  every  new  town  being 
supposed  to  contain  when  incorporated  at  least  500  inhabitants,  though  in 
some  instances  the  number  was  less."  See  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  564. 

2  Letter  from  John  Wentworth  to  T.  W.  Waldron,  October  25,  1774, 
Belknap  Papers,  pt.  iii,  56-59  {Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  6th  ser.,  vol.  iv). 
The  "Old  Brookfield  road  "  ran  to  Berlin  from  the  south,  and  then  on  to 
Montpelier,  and  the  Coos  road  from  the  Connecticut  River  to  Burlington. 
See  S.  F.  Nye,  in  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.,  iv,  53.  From  Burlington  settlers  went 
north  by  following  blazed  trees.    See  B.  A.  Kingsley,  ibid.,  ii,  201. 

*  Coolidge  and  Mansfield,  731,  870.  For  a  description  of  the  "  Hazen 
road,"  a  great  thoroughfare  for  Vermont  settlers  going  to  the  north,  see 
Thomas  Goodwillie,  in  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.,  i,  266.  Originally  a  road  over 
which  to  convey  troops  during  the  Revolution,  it  was  lengthened  and  re- 
paired by  General  Hazen,  until  it  extended  to  Westfield.  Afterwards 
branch  roads  were  made  on  either  side  of  it. 

*  Their  children  formed  part  of  a  colony  to  DuPage  County,  Illinois, 
later.  See  Kellogg,  in  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.,  iii,  408.  Also  Blanchard,  Hist, 
of  DuPage  County,  84,  85, 197. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  143 

To  Essex,  North  Hero,  Shelburne,  Sheldon,  Fairfax, 
Ferrisburgh,  Northfield;  to  Waterbury,  from  older 
Waterbury,  to  Fairfield,  and  a  dozen  other  villages 
swarmed  families  from  most  of  the  Connecticut  towns. 
Nor  was  Massachusetts  behind  her  neighbor  as  the 
mother  of  new  Vermont  settlements.  Braintree  is  the 
child  of  Braintree  on  the  bay ;  West  Springfield  set- 
tlers made  homes  beside  families  from  Litchfield,  Con- 
necticut, and  organized  Williston;  Worcester  County 
towns  had  representatives  in  Cabot  and  Stratton ;  a 
family  which  had  started  from  Cape  Ann  and  had 
halted  for  a  few  years  in  New  Hampshire  at  Hook- 
sett,  now  joined  with  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and 
New  York  people  to  found  Grand  Isle.  Between  1784 
and  1787  fifty-three  families  moved  to  Hinesburgh,  and 
two  years  later  joined  in  organizing  a  Congregational 
church ;  of  these  fifty-three,  two  from  Canaan,  Connecti- 
cut, had  built  cabins  here  in  1775,  had  been  driven  away 
during  the  war,  and  when  they  returned  were  reinforced 
shortly  by  one  household  from  Rutland,  another  from 
Williamstown,  Massachusetts,  ten  others  from  New  Mil- 
ford  and  Stonington,  Connecticut,  while  still  more  came 
from  Lanesborough,  Williamstown,  and  Worthington. 
To  Westf  ord,  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode 
Island  sent  men  to  plant  the  town.  Ludlow  is  a  Mas- 
sachusetts town.  Swanton  had  many  pioneers  from  Hard- 
wick,  Lanesborough,  Richmond,  Holden,  and  Barre. 
Westfield,  Lowell,  —  many  other  towns  derived  first  in- 
habitants from  towns  in  the  old  "  Bay  State."  * 

1  Pittsfield  and  Groton  were  named  for  the  Massachusetts  towns  ;  Rut- 
land, for  the  Bay  State  Rutland.  See  W.  R.  Blossom,  «  Pittsfield,"  Ver- 
mont  Hist,  Gaz.,  iii,  935  ;  A.  H.  Hill,  «  Groton,"  ibid.,  iv,  1146. 


144  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Nor  did  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  send  out 
all  the  pioneers  there  were  in  Vermont.  Ehode  Island 
contributed  some,  as  has  been  shown;  three  families 
went  to  Northfield ;  a  company  of  grantees  headed  by 
Jonathan  Arnold  obtained  in  1786  the  grant  of  St. 
Johnsbury,  settled  it  the  same  year,  and  organized  it 
in  1790,  when  it  had  a  population  of  143.  Burrillville 
families  were  among  the  founders  of  Sutton,  Providence 
people  among  those  of  Barton,  a  Glocester  man  at 
Westfield.  New  Hampshire  towns  were  swarming  also ; 
—  Piermont  sent  pioneers  to  Cambridge,  Fairfax,  and 
Johnson;  while  Claremont,  Alstead,  Bath,  Plaistow, 
Rumney,  and  many  others  were  represented  from  one 
end  of  the  state  to  the  other.  The  older  towns  in  Ver- 
mont, like  Bennington  and  Westminster,  were  now 
planting  new  towns,  —  Groton,  Hyde  Park,  Morristown, 
and  many  more.  From  Dutchess  County,  New  York, 
emigrants  moved  east  into  Burlington  and  Huntington, 
while  some  of  the  grantees  of  Waterbury  were  from 
Newark,  New  Jersey.^  Maine  towns  were  sending  out 
their  settlers,  and  some  helped  plant  Worcester,  Ver- 
mont. 

There  were  still  unoccupied  tracts  in  New  Hampshire 
and  Vermont  in  1812  as  there  were  in  Maine ;  but  they 
were  barren  soil,  from  which  a  mere  pittance  could  be 
wrung  after  months  of  toil,  and  though  there  were  men 
who  were  willing  to  make  a  trial  of  their  strength  in 
overcoming  the  difficulties  of  agriculture  on  such  terms, 

1  C.  C.  Parker,  "Waterbury,"  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.y'w,  813.  Settlers 
from  Morris  County,  New  Jersey,  went  to  Vermont  in  considerable  num- 
bers at  this  time. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  145 

they  were  few  in  number  and  often  easily  discouraged. 
Searsburg,  in  Bennington  County,  Vermont,  had  one 
family  within  its  limits  from  1812  to  1815 ;  in  1820 
its  population  was  nine,  but  "  one  moved  away."  Four 
years  later  one  family  came  to  stay,  as  did  another 
which  had  come  since  1820 ;  in  1830  the  census  reported 
forty  people  in  the  town/  James  Elliot,  the  first  man  in 
Victory,  Vermont,  stayed  but  three  or  four  years,  and 
for  a  number  of  years  after  his  departure  the  town  had 
no  inhabitants  at  all.  Finally,  Deacon  Asa  Wells,  who 
had  been  born  in  Bolton,  Connecticut,  and  had  lived 
in  Tolland,  Massachusetts,  in  Lunenburg,  and  then  in 
Granby,  Vermont,  came  to  Victory  and  made  his  home 
here  for  the  rest  of  his  life.^  Success,  in  New  Hampshire, 
had  but  two  inhabitants  for  many  years,  and  Kilkenny 
had  in  1850  a  population  of  nineteen.^  The  same  story 
may  be  repeated  for  Maine,  which  still  had  good  land 
for  farming  though  no  one  had  purchased  it.  Into  the 
counties  of  Aroostook,  Penobscot,  Washington,  and 
Piscataquis,  settlers  finally  moved,  from  the  older  por- 
tions of  Maine  or  the  British  Provinces  chiefly,  with 
here  and  there  a  Massachusetts  family,  as  in  Bradley. 
Some  towns  grew  rapidly;  Lee,  incorporated  in  1832 
with  its  four  hundred  people,  had  been  settled  since 
1824.  The  older  towns  were  filling  up,  however,  and 
the  population,  which  in  1820  was  298,269,  had  leaped 
in  1850  to  583,169.^ 

*  George  J.  Bond,  "  Searsburg,"  in  Vermont  Hist,  Gaz.,  i,  231. 

2  Loomis  Wells,  "  Deacon  Asa  Wells,"  in  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.f  i,  lO'lS. 

3  Coolidge  and  Mansfield,  545,  658. 

*  Ninth  Census  Report^  i,  35.  See  frontispiece. 


146  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  settlement  in  northern  New  England  after  1781 
is  illustrative  of  several  points :  first,  the  heterogeneous 
elements  which  went  to  make  up  a  town  in  which  five 
states  were  represented ;  second,  how  the  lines  of  emi- 
gration crossed  and  recrossed,  as  when  Newark  and  New 
York  settlers  came  to  Vermont,  while  Vermont  settlers 
moved,  as  we  shall  see  later,  to  New  York ;  and  third, 
how  for  many  families  the  Vermont  home  was  the  third 
or  fourth  which  had  been  planted  in  a  wilderness.  Again 
and  again  there  are  found  such  data  as  this :  a  man 
from  Providence  (Rhode  Island)  had  moved  to  Claren- 
don, Vermont,  where  he  remained  for  a  few  years,  and 
then  took  up  a  new  abode  in  Swan  ton  with  the  rest  of 
the  pioneer  families;  another  from  Lebanon,  Connecticut, 
removed  to  Hartland,  then  to  Roxbury,  Vermont ;  still 
another  from  Preston,  Connecticut,  to  Plainfield,  New 
Hampshire,  thence  to  Morristown,  Vermont;  or  from 
Hadley  to  Worthington,  Massachusetts,  then  to  Morris- 
town.  The  writer  of  the  history  of  Bloomfield  said 
frankly,  "But  few  of  the  early  settlers  remained  in 
town  for  any  great  length  of  time."^  When  Timothy 
Dwight  traveled  through  Vermont  in  1805,  he  noted 
the  radical  and  unconventional  ideas  of  the  inhabitants, 
as  evidenced  in  their  conversation,  their  constitution, 
and  their  educational  and  religious  views.  He  was  con- 
tinually contrasting  the  condition  of  affairs  in  the  towns 
through  which  he  passed  with  the  more  settled  order  of 
things  in  Connecticut,  to  the  disadvantage  of  Vermont. 
The  tendency  to  go  into  politica  and  law  seemed  to  him 
remarkable ;  for  us  it  foreshadows  the  later  prominence 
»  William  Burbank,  «  Bloomfield,"  Vermont  Hist.  Gaz.y  i,  950. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  147 

of  the  Vermonter  in  Wisconsin  and  Michigan  politics, 
and  npon  the  bench  in  the  West  as  well. 

One  observation  made  by  Mr.  Dwight  in  commenting 
upon  northern  New  England  was  the  low  moral  tone 
which  he  found  prevailing,  and  which  he  greatly  de- 
plored. He  attributed  it  in  large  part  to  indifference 
regarding  churches  and  schools,  and  cited  instances  to 
prove  his  charge  in  Vermont,  in  New  Hampshire,  and 
in  Maine.^  A  little  earlier,  however,  the  first  college  in 
Maine  had  been  founded  at  Brunswick,  and  named  for 
the  French  refugee,  Peter  Bowdoin.  Its  original  en- 
dowment was  five  townships  of  land,  and  from  1812  to 
1831  it  received  three  thousand  dollars  annually  from 
the  general  treasury.^  The  people  of  Maine  were  appar- 
ently conscious  of  the  lack  of  educational  advantages 
for  their  children,  and  were  determined  to  perpetuate 
Puritan  traditions  when  they  were  able. 

The  figures  of  increasing  population  in  northern  New 
England  seem  significant ;  but  the  greatest  emigrations 
after  1781  were  outside  the  New  England  States,  to 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Ohio,  where  the  history 
of  the  old  states  on  the  Atlantic  was  to  be  continued  in 

1  See  Dwight,  Travels^  ii,  456-475.  He  cited  New  Hampshire  towns  as 
neglecting  church  and  school.  "It  is  a  very  great  evil  to  .  .  .  [Wolf- 
borough,  Middleton,  Tuftonborough  and]  many  others  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, that  they  are,  and  for  a  considerable  length  of  time  have  been,  des- 
titute of  well-educated  ministers  of  the  gospel.  The  last  minister  of  Wolf- 
borough  died  about  fourteen  years  ago:  and  the  reluctance  to  be  at  the 
necessary  expense  has  prevented  the  inhabitants  from  settling  another. 
This  is  an  extensive  calamity  in  New  Hampshire."  Ihid.^  iv,  173-175.  He 
found  the  same  true  in  Maine,  because  of  the  poverty  and  weakness  of 
new  settlements.  See  ihid.y  ii,  237. 

'  See  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  662,  563. 


148  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  newer  states  their  children  founded.  A  differentia- 
tion of  three  kinds  of  pioneers  became  quite  apparent 
with  this  movement  to  the  West,  —  to  Pennsylvania,  to 
the  Genesee  country  in  New  York,  to  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois/  In  the  vanguard  moved  a  few  restless 
spirits,  trappers  and  hunters  primarily,  who  had  lived 
perhaps  on  the  edge  of  civilization  in  Vermont  or  New 
Hampshire,  and  now  moved  to  the  newer  ^^West,"  a 
region  ever  shifting  before  an  oncoming  army  of  settlers. 
These  pioneers  built  for  themselves  rude  cabins  just  at 
the  danger  line,  but  made  no  effort  to  cultivate  more 
than  a  garden-patch  about  the  rude  loghouse  which 
served  merely  as  a  shelter  from  rain  or  snow.  They  were 
rough  men  who  usually  disliked  any  restraint  of  law  or 
order,  and  cared  not  for  church  or  school ;  men  to  whom 
an  advancing  wave  of  the  next  class  of  pioneers  was 
a  sign  of  a  country  too  densely  peopled  and  a  warning 
for  the  hunter  to  move  on  farther  west.  Therefore,  these 
forerunners  of  civilization,  who  had  merely  "  squatted " 
on  the  piece  of  ground  they  had  appropriated,  sold  a 
shadowy  claim  to  the  representatives  of  the  second  class 
of  frontiersmen,  and  moved  on  to  a  new  forest,  to  go 
through  the  same  process  of  building  a  temporary  home, 
and  again  selling  out  and  wandering  from  the  newer 
New  England  townships. 

^  D wight,  Travels,  ii,  459  ff.  Mr.  D wight  noted  this  classification  in 
Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  and  New  York  in  1805-20.  James  Flint, 
in  Letters  from  America^  203-209,  gives  almost  exactly  the  same  idea  of 
the  people  he  found  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  He  found  in  1820  the 
third  class  most  prominent  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  earlier  settled  parts 
of  Ohio  ;  the  second  in  the  later  settled  parts  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky  ;  and 
the  first  in  Indiana  and  Illinois. 


GHEAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  149 

The  next  class  was  made  up  of  farmers  who  either 
appropriated  the  hunters'  cabins,  or  built  new  loghouses 
of  their  own,  —  men  who  through  poverty  or  discontent 
had  taken  up  the  search  for  a  new  home;  or  maybe 
they  had  the  roving  spirit  which  is  born  in  many  an 
Anglo-Saxon,  and  which  drives  a  man  to  seek  new  lands 
and  explore  the  wilderness  which  lies  beyond  his  horizon. 
These  farmers  cultivated  the  soil  to  a  limited  extent; 
they  "girdled"  the  trees  and  burned  them  instead  of 
felling  them,  and  their  crops  were  raised  on  the  ground 
still  bristling  with  the  stumps  of  a  charred  forest.  Of 
this  class  some  were  ambitious  and  faded  into  the  third 
class  of  thrifty  farmers ;  but  others  soon  became  restless, 
and  gathering  into  a  covered  wagon  their  few  household 
effects  and  a  group  of  ragged  children,  sold  at  a  slight 
profit  the  lands  they  had  purchased  of  the  hunter  or  at 
second  hand  from  a  company  of  proprietors,  and  moved 
on  again  toward  the  setting  sun. 

The  lands  thus  vacated  were  bought  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  third  and  best  class  of  pioneers, — 
those  who  were  young,  ambitious,  who  had  a  little 
capital  with  which  to  buy  a  farm  and  rear  a  family,  — 
capital  too  limited  to  purchase  a  home  in  the  East, 
where  land  had  become  more  dear  than  suited  the  purse 
of  a  farmer's  son  just  beginning  his  life  independently 
of  his  father's  family.  To  the  new  home  the  young  man 
brought  his  bride,  and  together  they  saved  and  planned 
and  toiled  till  the  log  cabin  was  replaced  by  a  substan- 
tial house,  barns  clustered  about  the  home-lot,  and  from 
this  group  of  buildings  stretched  away  the  acres  of 
wheat  and  corn.  The  farmer's  chief  desire  at  this  stage 


150  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

was  to  raise  more  than  enough  produce  for  his  imme- 
diate needs;  the  surplus  he  sold,  and  the  profits  he 
invested  in  new  lands  about  his  home-farm.  It  is  this 
class  which  brings  the  church,  the  school,  the  town- 
meeting;  this  class  which  dreams  of  a  college  which 
shall  reproduce  Harvard,  Yale,  or  Dartmouth ;  this  class 
which  ''  aims  at  a  seat  in  the  legislature  or  the  guber- 
natorial chair. "  ^ 

Not  always  were  these  three  classes  distinct ;  the  first 
might  fade  into  the  second,  the  second  into  the  third, 
and  one  man  might  exemplify  in  his  own  person  all  three 
types.  But  the  distinction  was  there,  and  shrewd  travelers 
like  Dwight  saw  it  and  commented  upon  it.  The  first 
two  made  but  little  lasting  impression  upon  a  new  com- 
munity ;  temporarily  they  gave  it  a  hard,  rough  charac- 
ter, "  with  a  reputation  for  recklessness  and  low  morals.*' 
The  third  gave  tone  to  a  mixed  population,  and  to  these 
workers  in  the  wilderness  the  Western  States  owe  their 
character  of  to-day.  To  this  character  all  the  elements 
contributed ;  —  the  Southern  man,  the  Pennsylvanian, 
the  Kentuckian,  each  gave  his  share  and  lent  his  tradi- 
tions to  the  building  of  a  new  commonwealth ;  but  though 
recognizing  the  part  each  played,  this  study  concerns 
itself  with  New  England's  share  in  planting  new  states 
outside  the  confines  of  her  own  original  territory. 

Emigration  to  Pennsylvania,  begun  on  a  large  scale 
before  the  Revolution,  was  continued  on  a  far  greater 
plan  after  the  conflict.  The  terrible  massacre  of  1778 
had  laid  the  Wyoming  country  waste ;  but  General  Sul- 

*  James  Flint  says  they  are  "  Congressmen,  politicians  in  the  legisla- 
ture, or  justices  of  the  peace."  See  Letters  from  Americaf  209. 


Lonzitude    West     78      from     Greenwich     76 


lew  York,New  Jersey 

and  Pennsylvania 

1790 

ll       I  New  England  Settlement 
I  All  Other  Settlement 


PITtltl,    tNCRS.,    BOSTON 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  151 

livan's  expedition  had  made  the  tracts  in  northern  Penn- 
sylvania again  habitable,  and  as  soon  as  the  war  was 
over,  the  settlers  who  had  fled  to  Orange  County,  New 
York,  to  Connecticut,  or  to  the  Delaware,  returned  to 
begin  life  anew/  Into  all  the  northeastern  counties,  into 
the  newer  counties  of  Elk,  Erie,  Crawford,  Bradford, 
McKean,  Schuylkill,  Tioga,  Susquehanna,  Venango, 
Warren,  and  Allegheny,  poured  a  stream  of  New  Eng- 
enders and  New  Yorkers,  with  a  sprinkling  of  New 
Jersey  men,  Scotch-Irish,  and  Germans.  The  Susque- 
hanna Company,  not  disposed  to  surrender  the  West- 
moreland country  without  a  struggle,  appointed  at  a 
meeting  in  Hartford  in  December,  1786,  twenty-one 
commissioners  as  a  provisional  government  to  be  set  up 
over  the  new  states  they  hoped  to  form  by  dismember- 
ing Pennsylvania.  A  constitution  was  drawn  up  and 
officers  appointed,  but  the  scheme  crumbled  when 
Pennsylvania  erected  Luzerne  County  in  1787-89,  es- 
tablished courts  and  introduced  laws.^  The  settlers  now 
moved  in  under  a  clear  title,  and  made  permanent  homes. 
Erie  County  became  more  like  New  York  than  Penn- 
sylvania, with  its  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  Maine 
settlers,  several  of  whom  had  tried  pioneering  in  New 
York.^  A  Congregational  church  organized  in  Poultney, 
Vermont,  moved  bodily  to  East  Smithfield,  in  Bradford 
County.  With  the  opening  of  a  rough  wagon  road  to 

1  Charles  Miner,  Hist,  of  Wyoming,  469-475. 

2  Ibid.f  401-412.  Oliver  Wolcott  is  said  to  have  drawn  up  the  constitu- 
tion ;  Major  William  Judd  of  Farmington,  Connecticut,  was  to  have  been 
governor,  and  Colonel  John  Franklin  of  Wyoming,  lieutenant-governor. 
H.  M.  Hoyt,  Brief  of  a  title  .  .  .  m  .  .  .  Luzerne,  73. 

8  Sherman  Day,  Hist.  Coll.  ofPa.f  309.  See  map  opposite. 


152  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  source  of  the  Tioga  River^  New  England  and  New 
York  people  poured  over  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  — 
hitherto  a  barrier  to  settlement.  They  filled  up  Tioga 
County,  —  "  the  pleasant  front  yards,  gardens,  and  green 
blinds  indicating  the  origin  of  the  population."^  The 
town  of  Honesdale,  in  Wayne  County,  laid  out  around 
the  court  house  square,  with  its  shade  trees,  white  houses 
with  green  blinds,  set  gable-end  to  the  street  "  after  the 
fashion  of  New  England,"  and  the  front  yards  filled 
with  flowers  and  shrubbery,  attested  the  traditions  of 
the  Eastern  States.  Luzerne  County  was  furthermore  a 
veritable  hotbed  of  Federalism,  true  in  its  political  ad- 
herence to  its  Connecticut  tradition. 

Crawford  County,  which  had  but  2346  inhabitants 
in  1800,  numbered  16,030  in  1830.  Here  were  mingled 
Germans,  Scotch-Irish,  New  Yorkers,  and  New  Eng- 
landers.^  Alleghany  College  was  incorporated  at  Mead- 
ville  in  this  county  in  1817;  its  first  president  was 
Timothy  Alden ;  one  of  its  first  donors  was  Isaiah  Thomas 
of  Worcester,  a  clergyman  of  Salem,  and  its  first  acces- 
sion of  rare  books  was  the  gift  of  Judge  Winthrop  of 
Massachusetts.^  In  these  ways  did  the  Bay  State  pass  on 
her  traditions  of  higher  education.* 

*  Day,  624-627.  This  was  said  of  Wellsborough,  but  it  was  a  description 
which  might  have  been  applied  to  a  number  of  towns  similarly  founded. 

2  Bates,  "  Crawford  County,"  in  W.  H.  Egle,  Hist,  of  Pennsylvania ,  610. 

8  Day,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Pa.,  257,  258. 

<  The  reason  why  the  areas  of  New  England  settlement  in  eastern  and 
central  Pennsylvania  differ  in  the  map  opposite  page  155,  and  those  op- 
posite pages  159  and  168,  is  that  often  the  New  England  element  came  late 
either  into  the  towns  and  there  made  up  the  merchant  and  professional 
class,  or  into  the  country  to  buy  up  farms  already  settled  in  order  to  in- 
crease their  productiveness.  See  Day,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Pa.^  233,  604,  603; 
Emily  C.  Blackman,  "Susquehanna  County,"  in  Egle,  Hist,  of  Pa..,  1093. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  153 

But  the  greatest  emigration  of  all  those  directly  fol- 
lowing the  Revolution  took  its  way  into  New  York, 
the  more  conservative  element  staying  nearer  the  east- 
ern boundary,  the  venturesome  ones  going  out  into  the 
wilderness.  A  strong  current  set  out  in  1783-84  from 
the  New  England  States,  and  speedily  the  western  shore 
of  Lake  Champlain  and  the  older  towns  on  the  Hudson 
felt  the  influence  of  the  newcomers.^  This  sort  of  emi- 
gration is  represented  in  Troy,  which  had  been  founded 
before  the  Revolution,  but  was  now  filled  up  with  home- 
seekers  from  west  of  the  Green  Mountains  and  the  Con- 
necticut River,  who  were  looking  for  a  favorable  loca- 
tion for  trade.  They  were  followed  by  professional  men, 
mechanics,  and  manufacturers,  who  saw  the  opportunity 
which  a  rapidly  increasing  population  north  of  Albany 
offered  to  the  "speculative"  and  "migrating"  New 
Englander.^ 

But  the  great  opportunities  for  expansion  lay  beyond 
the  Hudson,  in  the  central  and  western  portions  of  the 
state.  Pioneers  poured  into  these  regions  from  three 
directions :  those  from  Pennsylvania,  especially  the  New 
Englanders  transplanted  to  the  Wyoming  Valley  and 
driven  out  from  that  territory  in  1778,  pushed  up  the 
Susquehanna  to  Tioga  Point,  from  which  they  diverged 
east  and  west ;  those  who  came  directly  from  New  Eng- 
land crossed  the  Hudson  River,  proceeded  to  Unadilla, 
thence  down  the  Susquehanna  into  Chemung  or  up  to 
the  Genesee  country ;  while  a  third  stream  from  either 
New  England,  the  eastern  New  York  counties,  or  New 

1  W.  C.  Watson,  Essex  County,  203. 
»  A.  T.  Weise,  Hist,  of  Troy,  19. 


154  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Jersey  went  out  through  the  Mohawk  Valley  to  the 
upper  part  of  the  Genesee  country,  emerging  at  Buffalo 
about  1800/ 

The  first  settlers  had  often  become  acquainted  with 
the  lands  personally  through  the  campaigns  of  the  Revo- 
lution, or  through  stories  of  returning  soldiers.  During 
the  early  years  of  the  war,  perhaps  in  1776,  seven  pairs 
of  brothers,  from  seven  families  in  Plymouth,  Connecti- 
cut, enlisted  in  the  army,  were  marched  westward,  and 
stationed  at  various  times  at  Forts  Herkimer,  Schuyler, 
and  Stanwix,  where  the  surrounding  country  seemed  to 
them  especially  attractive.  At  the  close  of  the  war  they 
went  immediately  to  make  homes  in  the  vicinity  of  Kirk- 
land.^  Doubtless  others  were  led  in  the  same  direction 
by  the  reports  of  returning  soldiers.  Judge  Hugh  White 
of  Middletown,  Connecticut,  a  proprietor  of  lands  in 
Oneida  County,  New  York,  moved  with  four  grown  sons 
(but  one  of  whom  was  married)  to  his  new  possessions 
in  1784.^  To  induce  his  neighbors  in  Connecticut  to  fol- 
low him,  he  was  accustomed  to  send  back,  when  he  found 
opportunity,  the  largest  stalks  of  corn,  oats,  and  wheat, 
with  samples  of  his  best  potatoes  and  onions,  that  his 
old  friends  might  judge  for  themselves  how  productive 
was  Oneida  County  soil.  "  These  so  far  excelled  any- 
thing they  had  been  accustomed  to  see,  that  very  soon 
many  came  to  see  the  country,  and  in  general,  were  so 

*  H.  C.  Goodwin,  Cortland  County ^  93. 

2  Rev.  A.  D.  Gridley,  Hist,  of  Kirklandy  New  York,  19,  quotes  this  from 
an  historical  address  by  Judge  Williams  at  some  celebration  in  the  town. 

3  Pomroy  Jones,  Annals  of  Oneida  County,  790.  Also  Barber  and  Howe, 
Hist.  Coll.  of  New  York,  27. 


New  York.New  Jersey 

and  Pennsylvania 

1800 

I  New  England  Settlement 
J  All  Other  Settlement 


PITIRI,   INCRS, .    sgttON 


^     OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  153 

well  pleased  that  they  located  in  the  vicinity/'  —  and 
Whitestown  became  distinctly  a  Connecticut  settlement/ 

The  history  of  Binghamton  is  a  little  different  from 
others  which  have  been  mentioned.  In  1787  a  native  of 
Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  who  had  survived  the  mas- 
sacre of  Wyoming  Valley  in  1778  and  a  later  flood  of 
the  Susquehanna,  was  told  by  a  fur-trader  of  the  fertile 
land  about  the  site  of  the  future  Binghamton,  and  moved 
there.  Only  a  few  weeks  elapsed  before  he  was  joined 
by  two  men,  natives  of  Connecticut,  who  had  tried  pio- 
neering in  Vermont  and  in  the  Wyoming  Valley.  Others 
who  came  in  from  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  found 
no  roads  after  crossing  the  Hudson,  and  made  their  way 
through  the  woods.  By  1815  settlers  were  here  from 
seven  Connecticut  towns  and  one  New  Hampshire  vil- 
lage, one  Vermont  family  had  built  a  home,  while  still 
others  were  from  Massachusetts.^ 

The  familiar  mode  of  movement  by  neighborhoods 
which  was  as  old  as  the  first  town  in  New  England  was 
exemplified  again  in  the  settlement  of  Hudson,  New  York, 
by  an  association  of  thirty  Quaker  fishermen  from  Nan- 
tucket and  Martha's  Vineyard,  who  combined  at  Provi- 
dence in  the  purchase  of  lands  for  a  new  home  and  be- 
gan the  town  of  Hudson  in  1783.^  A  company  formed 
at  Dighton  purchased  46,000  acres  in  what  is  now 
Richmond,  and  planted  that  town.* 

An  enterprise  which  followed  the  old  lines  of  purchase 

*  See  map  opposite. 

»  J.  B.  Wilkinson,  Annals  of  Binghamton,  44, 45,  60,  92, 176-210. 
»  S.  B.  Miller,  Hist.  Sketches  of  Hudson,  6-8,  85. 

*  O.  Turner,  Pheljps-Gorham  Purchase,  198, 199. 


166  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

by  proprietors  who  sold  to  settlers  was  the  speculative 
plan  of  Phelps  and  Gorham,  a  scheme  on  a  far  larger 
scale  than  had  ever  been  the  case  before  the  Revolution. 
In  1786  the  State  of  New  York,  in  order  to  settle  the 
claim  to  a  portion  of  her  territory  which  Massachusetts 
had  based  upon  the  ancient  limits  of  her  charter,  ceded 
to  the  latter  without  any  equivalent  a  large  tract  con- 
sisting of  vacant  lands  in  the  west  central  part  of  the 
state/  The  lands  having  been  turned  over  to  Massachu- 
setts, Oliver  Phelps  of  Granville  and  Nathaniel  Gorham, 
also  of  the  Bay  State,  bought  the  preemptive  rights  to 
the  lands  in  western  New  York  for  $100,000,  payable 
in  three  installments.  The  following  year  the  Indian  title 
to  over  two  million  acres  was  extinguished  by  treaty, 
and  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  confirmed  the  grant. 
Thereupon,  Phelps  and  Gorham  had  their  purchase 
divided  into  townships  six  miles  square,  and  then  sub- 
divided into  160-acre  tracts ;  a  land-of&ce  was  opened  at 
Canandaigua,  and  about  one  third  of  the  whole  purchase 
was  sold  to  actual  settlers  or  to  speculators  who  sold 
later  to  settlers.^  Because  of  the  superiority  of  the  soil 
and  the  exceptional  excellence  of  title,  pioneers  fairly 
swarmed  to  the  "  Genesee  country."  James  Wadsworth, 
a  native  of  Durham,  Connecticut,  who  with  his  brother 
was  traveling  west,  noted  in  a  letter  to  his  family  in  1790 

1  Barber  and  Howe,  Hist.  Coll.  of  New  York,  40.  There  were  two  tracts 
in  the  cession,  one  called  indefinitely  "The  Genesee  Country,"  the  other 
including  the  counties  of  Browne  and  Tioga.  It  was  the  first  which  Phelps 
and  Gorham  bought. 

2  The  rest  was  sold  to  Robert  Morris  of  Philadelphia,  who  sold  it  to  an 
Englishman,  and  the  land  was  sold  by  the  latter  in  land  offices  at  Geneva 
and  Bath.  Rev.  J.  H.  Hotchkin,  Western  New  York,  8-10. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  157 

that  there  had  arrived  that  day  two  vessels  from  Rhode 
Island,  laden  the  one  with  twenty-eight  passengers,  the 
other  with  thirty,  all  bound  "  full  speed  for  the  Genesee 
country,"  and  added, "  The  imigrations  [s^c]  to  the  west- 
ward are  almost  beyond  belief."  ^  Out  to  the  wilderness 
by  way  of  the  Mohawk  from  Albany,  up  the  valleys 
from  the  Susquehanna,  overland  from  Vermont,  settlers 
poured  into  every  western  county  by  single  families, 
by  twos  and  threes,  and  by  whole  colonies.  In  reading 
the  local  histories,  one  feels  that  Connecticut  must  have 
been  beggared  of  inhabitants,  so  fast  did  hundreds  of 
her  families  make  their  way  into  New  York ;  many  who 
came  from  western  Massachusetts,  eastern  New  York, 
and  from  Vermont,  had  been  in  those  states  but  for  a 
short  time,  and  were  Connecticut  men  by  birth.^  Dur- 
ham, New  York,  is  but  one  instance  of  a  village  settled 
from  a  Connecticut  town,  whose  pioneers  preserved  the 
memory  of  the  old  home  east  of  the  Hudson  in  the  name 
of  the  new.^ 

When  in  1796  the  British  evacuated  Fort  Oswego, 

*  O.  Turner,  Phelps- Gorham  Purchasef  331.  Barber  says  that  winter  was 
chosen  by  many  as  a  time  to  migrate  because  of  the  fine  sleighing  and  conse- 
quent ease  with  which  goods  could  be  hauled.  See  Hist.  Coll.  of  New  York, 
40. 

2  Berkshire,  Tioga  County,  was  named  for  Berkshire  County,  Massa- 
chusetts, from  which  its  first  settlers  came  ;  Berkshire  County  had  been 
settled  from  Connecticut,  as  has  been  shown  in  this  study.  W.  B.  Gay,  Tioga 
County,  113  ;  also  Jones,  Annals  of  Oneida  County,  13,  and  Turner,  Phelps- 
Gorham  Purchase,  164-182. 

^  W.  C.  Fowler,  Hist,  of  Durham  (Connecticut),  214,  215,  gives  the 
names  of  thirty  emigrants  from  Durham,  Connecticut,  to  Durham, 
New  York,  in  a  letter  of  Rev.  Mr.  Timothy  Williston,  January  26, 
1848. 


158  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

settlement  immediately  began  upon  that  site;  the  next 
year  or  two  saw  families  building  homes  in  Lewis  and 
Jefferson  counties ;  by  1800  the  hamlets  which  stretched 
from  Utica  to  the  Genesee  River  were  mostly  connected 
with  one  another  by  extensions  of  the  main  thorough- 
fare, and  from  that  time  dates  the  influence  of  the  western 
counties  in  the  councils  of  New  York/  To  learn  the 
nature  of  this  enormous  movement,  one  has  but  to  study 
the  history  of  a  few  representative  towns.  A  semi-cen- 
tennial celebration  in  Lowville,  Lewis  County,  was  held 
in  1826,  in  which  fifty-five  old  settlers  took  part.  Of 
these,  twenty-two  had  come  from  Connecticut,  eight 
from  Massachusetts,  sixteen  from  New  York,  and  one 
each  from  Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  and  New  Jersey. 
The  twenty-two  Connecticut  settlers  represented  four- 
teen towns  in  every  part  of  the  state,  while  the  Massa- 
chusetts men  represented  seven  places,  including  Bos- 
ton, West  Springfield,  and  others  lying  between  the 
two.^  Thirty-eight  persons  from  Wolcott,  New  Hamp- 
shire, went  in  1803  to  Genesee;'  Augusta  in  Oneida 
County,  was  a  Litchfield  County,  Connecticut,  town, 
Farmington  was  settled  by  emigrants  from  Adams,^  and 
indeed  all  of  Berkshire  County  was  a  veritable  hive, 

1  Barber,  Hist.  Coll  of  N.  F.,  40. 

2  F.  B.  Hough,  Lewis  County,  297,  298. 

2  As  if  settlers  were  not  moving  in  fast  enough,  a  settler  in  the  Gene- 
see country  went  to  Wolcott,  New  Hampshire,  in  1803,  called  a  public 
meeting,  gave  a  description  of  the  New  York  lands,  and  urged  Wolcott 
people  to  emigrate.  Five  families  and  three  unmarried  men,  thirty-eight 
persons  in  all,  did  so  at  once,  in  seven  wagons.  They  were  twenty-one 
days  on  the  road.  See  Turner,  Phelps-Gorham  Purchase f  511. 

*  Turner,  Phelps-Gorham  Purchase,  217-222. 


PtTiRI.    tNCRS..    BOSTOX 


(y/V 


'ITY 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  159 

from  which  workers  swarmed  into  the  Phelps-Gorham 
Purchase.^ 

Kirkland,  in  Oneida  County,  was  a  typical  New  Eng- 
land settlement.  The  preliminary  surveys  having  been 
made  in  1786-87,  five  families  from  Plymouth,  Con- 
necticut, came  the  following  spring  from  German  Flats, 
then  the  outpost  of  the  region,  where  they  had  lived  for 
several  years.  By  April  the  little  clearing  had  thirteen 
families  living  there,  by  winter  twenty  more  were  estab- 
lished within  its  boundaries.  On  April  8,  1787,  in  the 
unfinished  house  of  Captain  Moses  Foot,  leader  of  the 
colony,  the  first  church  services  were  held.^  The  settlers, 
feeling  their  isolation  and  their  lack  of  organization, 
determined  to  draw  up  a  sort  of  compact  for  the  regu- 
lation of  afPairs  in  their  little  settlement.^  They  all  signed 
an  agreement  that  they  would  abide  by  its  terms.  They 
were  to  choose  a  secretary  as  soon  as  possible  ;  he  was 
to  keep  a  record  of  the  papers,  votes,  etc.,  of  the  settle- 
ment. The  draft  preserved  is  but  a  rough  one ;  but  it 
bears  an  interesting  resemblance  to  other  agreements 
among  settlers  as  to  the  distribution  of  land,  and  the 
necessity  in  all  town  business  of  conforming  to  the  will 
of  the  majority. 

1  Turner,  Phelps-Gorham  Purchase^  222.  A  list  of  sixty-one  settlers  in 
Rochester  between  1794  and  1819  gives  twenty-eight  Connecticut  men, 
nineteen  from  Massachusetts,  twenty-five  from  New  York,  three  from  Ver- 
mont, eleven  from  New  Hampshire,  one  from  Rhode  Island,  and  one  from 
Scotland.  Proc.  of  Rochester  Pioneer  Society,  3,  4,  11.  See  map  opposite. 

3  Rev.  A.  D.  Gridley,  Hist,  of  KirHand,  19-58. 

3  P.  Jones,  Annals  of  Oneida  County,  167,  170,  171.  The  next  year 
twenty  more  families  arrived  ;  those  who  came  together  from  Brimfield, 
Massachusetts,  settled  along  one  street  known  ever  since  as  "  Brimfield 
Street." 


160  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

A  few  instances  will  show  the  trend  of  many  similar 
personal  histories.  A  young  Irishman  and  his  wife  left 
the  north  of  Ireland  in  1740,  and  made  a  new  home  in 
Plainfield,  Connecticut,  where  they  became  very  well-to- 
do.  In  1765  they  found  it  necessary  to  provide  new 
farms  and  homes  for  their  nine  sons  and  only  daugh- 
ter, and  as  Vermont  was  then  the  "new  country,"  where 
cheap  lands  beckoned  the  pioneer  on,  the  family  moved — 
father,  mother,  and  children  —  to  Windsor,  Vermont. 
From  this  town  eight  of  the  nine  sons  entered  the  Rev- 
olutionary Army.  But  after  the  war  was  over,  thinking 
Vermont  offered  too  few  opportunities  to  the  enterpris- 
ing farmer,  four  of  the  sons  movied  to  Marcy,  Oneida 
County,  New  York,  in  1793-94,  and  became  early  set- 
tlers in  that  town.^  The  story  might  be  reproduced  in 
many  a  case. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  the  resemblance  of  central  and 
western  New  York  to  New  England  was  so  striking  as 
to  excite  comment.  Timothy  D  wight,  in  traveling  west 
from  Schenectady,  entered  New  Hartford, —  "the  first 
New  England  settlement  which  we  found  in  this  region." 
He  noted  the  neat  church  with  its  "  pretty  steeple,"  the 
houses  built  in  "  New  England  manner,"  the  "  spright- 
liness, thrift, and  beauty"  of  the  settlement.^  He  recog- 
nized Durham  as  a  New  England  town  by  its  school- 
houses  and  churches.  The  eastern  immigrants  took 
with  them  improved  methods  of  agriculture,  enter- 
prise, ingenuity,  and  social  habits;  by  1813  the  new- 
comers  were   rapidly   gaining   an    ascendancy  in    the 

*  Jones,  Annals  of  Oneida  County,  237,  238. 
'  Dwight,  Travels,  iii,  179  ;  iv,  17. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  161 

state.*  Azariah  Smith  was  a  typical  pioneer ;  born  in 
Middlefield,  Massachusetts,  in  1784,  he  taught  school 
winters  and  worked  on  his  father's  farm  summers,  till 
a  cousin  in  business  in  New  York  induced  him  in  1807 
to  move  to  Onondaga  County,  where  three  years  after  his 
arrival  he  owned  a  small  store.  He  was  always  remark- 
able for  the  interest  he  manifested  in  the  local  village 
affairs  ;  —  he  was  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  education, 
for  Sunday  schools,  was  .a  trustee  of  the  village  school 
in  Manlius,  of  Manlius  Academy,  of  Hamilton  College, 
and  of  Auburn  Theological  Seminary.  But  he  went 
beyond  his  native  town,  and  served  in  the  state  legisla- 
ture from  1839  until  1841,  where  he  was  placed  on  the 
committee  on  prisons  and  penitentiaries,  and  suggested 
many  valuable  reforms  in  the  administration  of  those 
institutions.^  The  biography  of  Samuel  Miles  Hopkins, 
who  was  born  in  Waterbury,  Connecticut,  and  lived  in 
Geneva,  New  York,  shows  the  same  philanthropic  zeal 
mingled  with  shrewd  judgment.^ 

The  phase  of  character  which  most  writers  on  the  lo- 
cal history  of  New  York  towns  emphasize  is  the  strongly 
marked  tendency  of  the  New  Englanders  to  establish 
public  worship  as  soon  as  they  arrived.  Jay  Gould,  in 
speaking  of  the  company  of  twenty  heads  of  families 
and  two  single  men  who  came  in  1799  to  Stamford, 
Delaware  County,  from  Fairfield  County,  Connecticut, 

1  H.  C.  Spafford,  Gazetteer  of .  .  .  N.  7.,  36.  In  1803  six  families  from 
Orwell,  Vermont,  settled  Stockholm,  St.  Lawrence  County.  They  brought 
with  them  fifty  sheep,  the  first  flock  in  the  county.  F.  B.  Hough,  St. 
Lawrence  and  Franklin  Counties,  473. 

2  J.  V.  H.  Clark,  Onondaga,  ii,  194-199. 

'  S.  M.  Hopkins,  Autobiography ,  9-41,  in  Rochester  Hist.  Soc,  Pub.f  no.  ii. 


162  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

notes  especially  that  these  pioneers  kept  Sunday  by  meet- 
ing at  some  house  in  the  neighborhood  which  was  cen- 
trally located,  and  listening  to  some  old  sermon  read  by 
the  deacon  of  the  settlement.^  At  Bergen,  the  Guil- 
ford, Connecticut,  emigrants  "  set  up  public  worship  at 
once  " ;  ^  Deacon  Patchin,  from  Connecticut,  used  from 
the  time  of  his  arrival  in  Newfield  to  open  his  house 
every  Sunday  for  worship,  and  maintained  it  almost 
alone  for  ten  years.^  The  settlers  of  Marcellus  were 
gathered  from  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  and  Connecti- 
cut ;  they  were  noted  for  the  anxiety  they  showed  in 
providing  for  the  religious  and  intellectual  education 
of  their  children,  and  for  their  establishment  of  a  school 
two  years  after  their  arrival."*  A  Congregational  church 
was  formed  in  Lafayette  by  members  from  Berkshire 
and  Hampshire  counties  in  Massachusetts  in  1804,  ser- 
vices having  been  held  previously  in  the  house  of  a  Con- 
gregationalist  from  Norwich,  Connecticut.^  Public  wor- 
ship was  instituted  by  a  pioneer  of  Genoa  immediately 
after  his  arrival ;  six  years  later  the  church  of  sixteen 
members  was  organized.®  Several  colonies  in  Essex 
County  brought  their  ministers  with  them.^ 

One  significant  change  was  wrought  in  church  organ- 
ization by  the  process  of  transplanting  from  New  Eng- 

»  Jay  Gould,  History  of  Delaware  County,  197-202. 

2  Rev.  J.  H.  Hotchkin,  Western  New  York,  502. 

3  Bid.,  414. 

*  J.  V.  H.  Clark,  Onondaga,  ii,  290.  Also  W.  C.  Watson,  Essex  Co.,  210, 
speaks  of  voluntary  support  of  schools. 

^  Clark,  Onondaga,  ii,  283-286. 

•  Hotchkin,  Western  New  York,  355,  356. 
'  Watson,  Essex  County,  310. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  163 

land.  Congregationalism  had  been  the  prevailing  form 
of  church  government  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 
cut, and  the  emigrants  from  those  states  had  taken 
their  individualistic  administration  with  them  to  their 
new  homes  in  the  wilderness.  But  poverty  stared  the 
pioneers  in  the  face ;  although  they  wanted  the  benefits 
of  churches  and  public  worship  for  themselves  and  for 
their  children,  they  were  often  too  poor  and  too  few  in 
numbers  to  support  a  minister  for  themselves.  Presby- 
teries were  established  early  in  western  New  York,  and 
under  these  organizations  many  weak  Congregational 
churches  placed  themselves,  under  an  "  accommodation 
system,"  by  which  they  retained  most  of  their  own 
peculiar  administrative  forms  and  their  own  creed,  yet 
had  the  advantage  of  united  support  from  their  neighbor 
churches.  The  Congregational  Church  of  Florence, 
Oneida  County,  was  organized  in  1816  with  ten  mem- 
bers, but  soon  joined  the  Presbytery  on  the  "  accommo- 
dation system  " ;  ^  the  Congregational  Church  of  Candor, 
organized  in  1808,  became  Presbyterian  in  1821 ;  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Owego  was  organized  in 
1817  as  a  Congregational  church,  was  soon  taken  under 
the  care  of  the  Cayuga  and  Tioga  Presbyteries,  and  in 
1831  abandoned  Congregationalism  and  adopted  the 
Presbyterian  form  of  government  in  f uU.^  Seventy  years 
after  its  establishment  the  Congregational  Church  of 
Kirkland  became  Presbyterian  because  the  Congre- 
gationalists  had  become  weak  in  that  region,  and  the 

*  Jones,  Annals  of  Oneida  County,  150. 

2  W.  B.  Gay,  Tioga  County,  402,  403.  In  1850  forty-six  members  with- 
drew, and  formed  a  Congregational  church. 


164  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Presbyterians  comparatively  strong/  In  Marcellus,  Con- 
gregationalists,  Presbyterians,  and  Baptists  worshiped 
together  for  twenty  years,  —  a  witness  to  frontier  toler- 
ation and  a  spirit  of  mutual  forbearance  born  of  wilder- 
ness life.^ 

The  need  for  preachers  in  the  new  settlements  reacted 
upon  the  older  states  by  fostering  anew  the  missionary 
spirit  which  had  led  the  Puritans  in  their  early  history 
to  an  endeavor  to  rescue  the  souls  of  the  Indians  from 
*^a  heathen  doom."  The  Presbyterians  and  Congrega- 
tionalists  of  New  England  sent  before  1800  at  least 
thirty-seven  ministers  either  to  report  the  spiritual  neces- 
sities of  the  frontiersmen,  or  to  labor  in  the  wilderness.^ 
A  missionary  society  organized  in  1779  in  Massachu- 
setts, began  operations  in  1800  in  the  Genesee  country ;  * 
the  Hampshire  Missionary  Society  of  Northampton, 
Massachusetts,  directed  its  attention  for  twenty  years  to 
the  settlers  of  western  New  York,  as  did  the  society  of 
Hopkinton,  New  Hampshire.  The  Connecticut  Society 
worked  on  a  different  basis,  for  their  missionaries  were 
usually  on  leave  of  absence  from  their  own  congrega- 
tions for  three  or  four  months,  during  which  time  they 
ministered  to  the  needs  of  the  New  York  settlers. 

The  New  Englanders  carried  with  them,  also,  their 
town-meeting.  In  Canandaigua,  the  first  assemblage 
of  settlers  was  held  in  1791,  two  years  after  the  first 
comers  arrived.    Up  to  1805-06,  there  was  no  govern- 

1  A.  D.  Gridley,  History  of  Kirkland,  98. 

'  Clark,  Onondaga^  ii,  290,  291. 

»  E.  H.  Roberts,  New  York,  ii,  486. 

*  Hotchkin,  Western  New  York,  184, 186, 187, 188. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  165 

ment  in  western  New  York  save  such  town  organ- 
ization as  the  early  settlers  had  established ;  the  whole 
of  the  territory  west  of  the  Genesee  River  was  in- 
cluded in  the  town  of  Northampton,  but  the  vicinity 
of  Buffalo  lay  beyond  the  pale  of  the  county  system.  In 
1808  the  legislature  organized  Niagara  County,  with 
Buffalo  as  the  county  seat,  on  condition  that  the  Hol- 
land Land  Company  (which  owned  the  tract  so  organ- 
ized) should  build  a  courthouse  and  jail,  and  convey 
them  to  the  county/  But  the  final  arrangement  was  not 
that  of  the  New  England  town-meeting  as  it  had  existed 
in  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut,  for  in  New  York  the 
mixed  system  of  county  and  town  government  had 
obtained  ever  since  the  Duke's  Laws  of  1664  had  been 
promulgated.  Whenever  a  new  town  was  erected,  four 
justices  of  the  peace  were  chosen  at  the  first  election, 
and  these  presided  at  a  town-meeting  where  the  town 
officers  were  chosen :  the  usual  New  England  ones  with 
the  addition  of  a  supervisor  to  receive  and  pay  out  town 
moneys,  keep  accounts,  sue  in  the  name  of  the  town, 
and  cause  town  surveys  to  be  made.  This  supervisor  is 
to-day  as  he  was  then,  —  the  link  between  town  and 
county ;  he  meets  once  a  year  with  supervisors  from 
every  other  town  in  the  county,  and  represents  his  town 
on  the  board  so  formed,  to  make  laws  for  the  corporate 
property  of  the  county,  have  charge  of  its  accounts,  and 
audit  debts  and  bills  of  all  officers  and  other  persons 
outstanding  against  the  towns.  In  addition  to  the  board 
of  supervisors,  the  county  has  its  treasurer,  clerk,  sher* 

1  Wm.  Ketchura,  History  of  Buffalo,  ii,  230,  231. 


166  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

ijff,  coroner,  surrogate,  and  district  attorney.*  Thus  the 
town  government  of  New  England  takes  a  subordinate 
place  when  upon  it  is  superimposed  the  county  govern- 
ment as  in  the  New  York  system. 

The  settlement  of  western  New  York  is  typical  of 
the  later  emigration  into  the  Northwest  Territory,  and 
so  deserves  a  general  resume.  The  restless  and  discon- 
tented elements  moved  first ;  among  the  pioneers  who 
emigrated  to  the  Genesee  country  in  1788-89,  before 
the  Indian  title  was  extinguished,  were  Jemima  Wilkin- 
son and  the  followers  she  had  secured  to  practice  her 
peculiar  religious  ideas,  —  ideas  which  could  not  be 
tolerated  in  their  New  England  homes.^  But  the  next 
settlers  went  for  good,  cheap  land;  therefore  a  very 
considerable  portion  of  those  who  emigrated  to  western 
New  York  were  farmers  in  the  "meridian  of  life," 
whose  children,  acquaintances,  and  relatives  made  up 
the  settlements.  Generally  they  were  supplied  with 
enough  money  not  only  to  buy  their  farms,  but  also  to 
make  improvements,  and  therefore  were  exempt  from 
the  privations  of  the  earliest  pioneers  who  had  sold  out 
to  these  later  comers  and  emigrated  west.  Mechanics 
followed  farmers,  in  the  hope  of  attaining  greater  pros- 
perity than  they  had  enjoyed  in  their  old  homes,  "  by 
adding  the  business  of  a  farm  to  their  mechanic  employ- 
ment." Mills  were  erected,  and  the  whole  community 
took  on  an  appearance  of  permanence  which  it  had 
lacked  in  the  earlier  days.^  Here,  however,  in  conse- 

^Rev.  Statutes  of  New  York,  i,  110,  339-342,  365-367. 
2  O.  Turner,  Phelps-Gorham  Purchase,  153-162. 

'  Hotchkin,  Western  New  York,  25;  also  Jones,  Annals  of  Oneida  Co., 
639,  640. 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  167 

quence  of  the  intermixture  of  emigrants,  diversity  in 
thought  and  taste  were  apparent,  and  the  churches, 
town-meetings,  and  schools  were  no  longer  precisely  of 
the  Puritan  type,  though  the  traditions  of  all  were  pre- 
served in  the  new  institutions.*  With  the  arrival  of  the 
first  emigrants  from  New  England,  in  the  early  days  of 
New  York,  the  incoming  missionaries  had  been  a  great 
stimulus  to  education,  churches  had  also  flourished,  and 
the  interior  of  the  state  found  an  attraction  in  the  field 
offered,  and  churches  were  widely  extended  as  the  pop- 
ulation increased.  "Every  new  method  in  religion, 
every  new  suggestion  in  theology,  found  hospitable 
reception  there,"  ^  though  the  theories  were  not  always 
sane  or  practical.  The  Oneida  community  is  but  one 
illustration ;  Mormonism,  whose  founder  was  by  birth 
a  Vermont  man,  as  was  its  first  great  president,  Brigham 
Young,  shows  a  phase  of  peculiar  religious  enthusiasm 
associated  with  communal  ideas.^ 

*  Samuel  Hopkins  noted  the  difPerence  between  the  state  of  society  in 
his  native  town  of  Goshen,  Connecticut,  and  that  of  his  new  home  in  New 
York.  He  had  never  seen  in  his  native  town  a  person  of  "  competent  age 
to  read  and  write,  who  could  not  do  both."  He  testified  to  the  high  grade 
of  general  intelligence  in  Connecticut,  and  found  a  sharp  contrast  in 
western  New  York.  See  S.  M.  Hopkins,  Autobiography ^  19,  in  Rochester 
Hist.  Soc.  Pub.f  no.  ii. 

2  E.  H.  Roberts,  New  York,  ii,  559. 

'  Warsaw  will  serve  as  a  type  of  the  growth  of  a  town  in  New  York 
between  1812  and  1837.  Settled  in  1803-04  from  Vermont  by  way  of 
Granville,  it  had  not  many  inhabitants  in  its  early  years.  One  of  the  early 
settlers  who  arrived  at  the  age  of  forty  had  already  moved  six  times 
since  in  his  childhood  his  parents  had  left  his  birthplace  of  Bozrah,  Con- 
necticut. In  Colchester  and  in  Hebron,  in  Sandisfield  and  Great  Barring- 
ton,  in  Green  River  and  Genesee,  he  had  tried  his  luck,  and  finally  settled 
in  Warsaw.  His  neighbors  came  from  Londonderry,  Bath,  Poplin,  Leba- 
non, and  Richmond,  New  Hampshire ;  from  Bennington,  Pawlet,  Hub- 


168  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

After  1812  the  interest  in  settlement  centres  else- 
where ;  "  the  West "  now  moved  on  into  western  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois.  The  overflow  still  carried  settlers 
to  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  but  the  process  was 
now  one  of  filling  in  states  whose  organization  was  per- 
fected, and  their  institutions  no  longer  in  the  formative 
stage/  The  emigrants  from  New  England  took  their 
thrift  and  enterprise  with  them,  and  contributed  sub- 
stantially to  the  prosperity  of  their  adopted  homes.  It 
seemed  to  Timothy  Dwight  that  the  inhabitants  of  New 
York  and  New  England  were  substantially  one  people, 
"with  the  same  interests  of  every  kind  inseparably 
united."  ^  When  this  observant  traveler  made  a  journey 

bardton,  Fair  Haven,  and  Shaftsbury,  Vermont  ;  from  Attleborough, 
Barnstable,  Rehoboth,  Wilbraham,  and  Hanover,  Massachusetts  ;  from 
Canaan,  Lebanon,  Canterbury,  Cheshire,  Hartford,  Warren,  Guilford, 
Hartland,  and  Colchester,  Connecticut  ;  and  from  Scituate,  Rhode  Island  ; 
—  arriving  from  1804  to  1833.  Much  of  Chautauqua  County,  settled  after 
1804  (and  quickly  after  1812),  shows  the  same  influx  of  population  from 
all  over  New  England  during  the  thirty  years  following  the  war.  See 
A.  W,  Young,  Hist,  of  Warsaw,  234-236, 257  ;  also  id..  Hist,  of  Chautauqua 
County,  350-364. 

1  P.  A.  Hamilton,  in  an  article  on  "  Some  Southern  Yankees,"  in  the 
American  Historical  Magazine,  iii  (Oct.,  1898),  304-309,  gives  some  inter- 
esting illustrations  of  the  migrations  of  New  Englanders  from  1795  to 
1817.  Lewis  Judson  of  Stratford,  Connecticut,  founded  in  Mobile,  Ala- 
bama, soon  after  1795,  the  trading  establishment  of  John  Forbes  and  Co. 
Peter  Hobart,  a  Vermonter,  had  about  the  same  year  a  mill  in  Mobile. 
Cyrus  Sibley  of  Massachusetts  came  by  way  of  the  Natchez  settlement  to 
Mobile.  Josiah  Blakeley  of  New  Haven  moved  to  Mobile  about  1806, 
after  six  years'  residence  in  Santiago  de  Cuba.  President  Jefferson  assisted 
the  movement,  according  to  Mr.  Hamilton,  by  the  distribution  of  South- 
ern offices  to  Northern  men.  Although  St.  Stephens,  the  new  capital  of 
Alabama,  was  founded  in  1817  by  a  large  number  of  Southern  men,  there 
was  one  Silas  Dinsmore  of  New  Hampshire  among  them. 

'  Dwight,  TravelSf  iv,  527.  See  map  opposite. 


f     New  York,New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania 

\  LJ  New  England  Settlement 
I  All  Other  Settlement 


GREAT  MIGRATIONS  TOWARD  THE  WEST  160 

in  1821  to  Niagara,  he  noted  the  increase  in  New 
York's  population  from  1790,  when  it  was  340,120, 
through  1810,  when  it  was  484,620,  till  1820,  when  it 
had  reached  959,220.  He  estimated  that  from  three 
fifths  to  two  thirds  of  this  increase  had  originated  from 
New  England,  and  thought  the  population  increasing 
continually;  he  considered  New  York  would  be  ulti- 
mately but  "a  colony  from  New  England,"  whose 
inhabitants  crowded  in  for  commercial  as  well  as  for 
agricultural  betterment.* 

Into  the  history  of  New  York,  and  to  a  less  degree 
into  that  of  Pennsylvania,  are  woven  strands  which  only 
New  England  could  have  contributed.  From  1783, 
when  the  great  movement  into  central  New  York  began, 
down  to  1820,  when  its  climax  was  reached,  the  history 
of  New  York  was  largely  one  of  immigration,  of  new 
settlements,  of  frontier  influences,  shaping  the  future 
of  the  larger  half  of  the  state.  By  1820  our  interest 
lies  elsewhere ;  the  movement  has  lost  its  distinctively 
pioneer  features,  and  one  must  follow  the  flood  farther 
west,  there  to  find  the  story  repeated,  —  the  same,  yet 
ever  varying. 

*  Ihid.y  iii,  266,  267.  There  was  also  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution  a 
decided  movement  towards  the  Canadian  lands  just  over  the  border,  espe- 
cially from  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Vermont.  Children  of  these 
pioneers  often  in  the  '40's  and  '50's  moved  back  into  the  "  States,"  set- 
tling in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin.  See  Wm.  Ketchum,  Hist,  of  Buffalo fU^ 
142  ;  and  John  Maude,  Visit  to  Niagara,  60, 120,  127, 133. 


170  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

The  sources  for  Pennsylvania  history  are  not  very  different  from  those 
mentioned  in  the  notes  on  Chapter  V.  There  are  a  few  good  articles,  such 
as  H.  M.  Hoyt's  "  Brief  of  a  title  in  the  seventeen  townships  in  the  county 
of  Luzerne,"  available  in  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Publications.  Miss  L. 
C.  Sanford's  History  of  Erie  County,  Pennsylvania,  was  useful.  But  the 
great  mass  of  literature  on  Pennsylvania  local  history  deals  with  the  Ger- 
mans, Quaker,  or  Scotch-Irish  settlement,  or  with  the  obvious  New  Eng- 
land towns  in  the  Westmoreland  district. 

For  New  York  history  there  is  almost  an  embarrassment  of  riches. 
Such  local  histories  as  these  are  accurate  and  excellent  :  J.  V.  H.  Clark, 
Onondaga  (2  vols.,  Syracuse,  1849)  ;  Rev.  J.  H.  Hotchkin,  A  History  of 
the  Purchase  and  Settlement  of  Western  New  York  (written  by  a  missionary 
to  that  part  of  the  state)  ;  O.  Turner,  Pioneer  History  of  the  Holland  Pur- 
chase of  Western  New  York  (Buffalo,  1849),  and  his  other  work.  History 
of  the  Pioneer  Settlement  of  Phelps  and  Gorham's  Purchase,  and  Morris'  Re- 
serve (the  latter  having  a  supplement  giving  the  history  of  Monroe  County)  ; 
Rev.  A.  D.  Gridley,  History  of  Kirkland.  There  are  also  some  good  county 
histories,  notably  the  following  :  W.  B.  Gay  (editor).  Historical  Gazetteer 
of  Tioga  County,  New  York,  1785-1888;  H.  C.  Goodwin,  Pioneer  History  of 
Cortland  County.  .  .  ;  F.  B.  Hough,  History  of  Lewis  County,  and  another 
work  by  the  same  author,  A  History  of  St.  Lawrence  and  Franklin  Counties  ; 
W.  C.  Watson,  The  Military  and  Civil  History  of  the  County  of  Essex;  A.  W. 
Young,  History  of  Chautauqua  County,  and  his  earlier  work,  History  of  the 
Town  of  Warsaw.  Reference  has  also  been  made  to  the  Publications  of 
the  Rochester  Historical  Society,  and  to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Pioneer 
Society  of  Rochester.  Ellis  H.  Robert's  New  York  (2  vols.),  in  the 
American  Commonwealth  Series,  is  popular,  like  all  of  that  series,  but  is 
useful  at  times  for  special  study. 

Timothy  Dwight's  shrewd  observations  in  his  carefully  compiled  Trav- 
els  in  New  England  and  New  York  (4  vols..  New  Haven,  1821),  can  be 
drawn  upon  again  and  again.  He  not  only  conversed  with  people  wherever 
he  went,  but  made  keen  deductions  from  his  information.  James  Flint's 
Letters  from  America  (Edinburgh,  1822)  is  a  work  much  like  Timothy 
Dwight's,  but  from  quite  a  different  standpoint.  It  is  especially  valuable  for 
observations  on  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  John  Maude,  Visit  to  the  Falls 
of  Niagara  in  1800  (London,  1826),  published  his  book  at  first  anony- 
mously. It  contains  much  material  on  western  New  York  towns  in  1800. 


CHAPTEE  VII 

THE   PLANTING   OF   A   SECOND   NEW   ENGLAND 

1787-1865 

The  years  just  succeeding  the  Revolution  had  been 
characterized,  as  has  been  shown  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter, by  unprecedentedly  large  emigrations  from  all  o£ 
New  England  into  the  unsettled  parts  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  to  the  still  unoccupied 
portions  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont.  But 
even  these  immense  tracts  were  insufficient  to  satisfy 
those  who  were  in  quest  of  new  homes,  and  the  pressure 
exerted  upon  the  frontier  line  everywhere  was  greater 
than  it  had  ever  been  before.  The  dangers  looming 
large  before  the  would-be  pioneer  were  the  same  ones 
that  his  ancestors  had  met ;  but  of  them  all,  the  danger 
of  hostilities  begun  by  the  dispossessed  Indians  was 
greatest.  One  of  the  first  duties  of  the  new  government 
just  forming  was  to  make  habitable  those  regions  be- 
yond the  Appalachian  Mountains  where  was  destined  to 
be  planted  a  second  New  England. 

The  story  of  the  settlement  of  Ohio  has  many  points 
of  resemblance  to  the  history  of  the  beginnings  in  the 
coast  states;  yet  in  one  feature  there  lies  an  essential 
difference.  The  states  that  had  been  settled  as  English 
colonies  had  each  had  their  own  lands,  granted  with 
more  or  less  indefinite  boundaries  by  some  English  king. 
These  lands  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  colonial  legisla- 


172  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

tures,  which  made  preemptive  grants  to  settlers  or  to  a 
group  of  proprietors,  by  whom  the  Indian  title  was 
extinguished,  generally  by  purchase.  If  the  transaction 
had  been  made  by  proprietors,  they  often  sold  the  lands 
to  actual  settlers,  and  pocketed  the  gains.  After  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  had  transformed  the  colo- 
nies into  states,  the  situation  as  to  unappropriated  lands 
lying  within  the  boundaries  of  those  states  was  quite 
unchanged,  and  the  process  of  settling  unoccupied  tracts 
was  not  essentially  different  from  what  it  had  been  be- 
fore 1776.  Even  in  New  York  the  termination  of  the 
dispute  between  that  state  and  Massachusetts  over  the 
lands  beyond  the  Hudson  River  which  both  claimed  did 
not  alter  the  mode  of  disposing  of  vacant  lands ;  the 
story  of  settlement  in  the  Phelps-Gorham  tract  and  in 
the  Holland  Purchase  is  not  at  all  unlike  the  story  of 
settlement  in  the  preceding  century,  save  that  it  took 
place  on  a  far  larger  scale  and  far  more  rapidly  than 
had  seemed  possible  before  that  time. 

But  with  the  cession  of  Western  lands  to  the  general 
government  in  1781,  the  whole  situation  was  changed ; 
now  the  seller  of  lands  beyond  the  western  boundaries 
of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  coast  states  to  the 
territory  of  Florida,  was  the  United  States,  —  not  any 
one  state.  From  that  time  until  the  present  day  the 
Federal  government  has  had  at  its  disposal  large  areas 
of  land,  —  prairie,  timber,  salt,  and  mining  tracts, 
—  all  of  which  it  has  been  ready  to  sell  at  the  lowest 
possible  terms  to  actual  settlers.  So  far  as  the  United 
States  has  been  concerned,  there  has  not  been  any 
speculative  scheme  in  mind,  no  desire  to  make  money^ 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND      173 

out  of  the  prospective  emigTantj_jKlien  speculation  has 
taken  p!Ecey4t"hasn5eeii  possible  only  after  the  tracts 
have  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  general  government. 
To  the  federal  authorities,  moreover,  there  passed,  with 
the  cession  of  the  land,  the  responsibility  for  quieting 
the  Indians,  and  the  treaties  which  followed  the  close 
of  the  Revolution  form  the  basis  for  settlement  west  of 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York.  The  new  nation  had  no 
money  in  its  treasury,  but  it  had  plenty  of  land ;  and 
the  first  payments  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  who  had 
won  the  struggle  which  ended  in  the  formation  of  a 
new  nation  were  made  in  the  only  commodity  available 
for  the  purpose,  —  tracts  of  unoccupied  soil.  In  order 
to  make  these  bounty  lands  and  military  tracts  habit- 
able, a  series  of  Indian  treaties  was  entered  into,  begin- 
ning with  that  of  Fort  StanwixJa^JlIM^.  followed  by  j^ 
the  Fort  Mcintosh  peace  of  1785,  and  made  definite  !J 
and  effectual  by  the  treaty  of  Greenville  of  1794,  when  ^i 
settlement  had  been  progressing  for  seven  years  under 
the  Ordinance  of  1787.  By  the  peace  of  Greenville  the 
Indian  tribes  concerned  gave  up  absolutely  all  title  to 
the  greater  part  of  what  is  now  the  State  of  Ohio.  By 
1805  settlement  had  pressed  up  to  the  very  edge  of  the 
land  ceded  in  1794;  thereupon  a  succession  of  new 
treaties  opened  up  the  rest  of  the  State  of  Ohio  as  well 
as  lands  beyond  the  western  boundary  for  the  outgoing 
flood  of  emigration.^  The  new  part  of  the  process,  then, 
is  the  part  played  by  the  Federal  government.  The  only 
place  where  old  methods  still  obtained  was  in   that 

*  These  treaties  are  well  summarized  in  Howe,  Historical  Collections  of 
Ohio,  i,  36-43  (ed.  1904). 


174  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

district  extending  westward  halfway  across  the  State 
of  Ohio,  and  occupying  approximately  an  eighth  of  the 
whole  area  of  that  state,  —  the  district  known  as  the 
Western  Keserve,  which  Connecticut  had  specifically 
retained  at  the  time  of  the  general  cessions.  Here  the 
process  of  peophng  the  new  country  was  exactly  like 
the  old  method  whereby  Connecticut  herself,  and  later 
her  extensive  Westmoreland,  had  been  covered  with 
towns  and  farms.  It  is  significant  and  interesting,  more- 
over, to  note  that  the  proceeds  of  sales  in  the  Western 
Reserve  went  to  swell  the  school  fund  of  the  mother  state. 
Beginning  in  1787,  the  tide  of  emigration  poured  out 
^y^  beyond  the  borders  of  the  thirteen  original  states,  into 
a  practically  unknown  and  unbroken  wilderness.  By 
wagons,  by  rafts,  hundreds  of  families  from  New  Eng- 
land, along  with  their  neighbors  in  the  Middle  States, 
followed  the  Mohawk  Valley  or  the  old  Braddock 
Road,  or  floated  down  the  Ohio,*  to  plant  a  new  state 
which  should  be  but  a  younger  New  England  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Erie  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Muskingum. 
The  process  of  emigration  was  for  their  descendants 
what  it  had  been  for  the  Puritans  themselves; — from 
those  early  days  when  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hooker  and  his 
congregation  had  made  their  way  from  Newtowne  to  the 
Connecticut  River,  until  the  time,  two  centuries  later, 
when  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shipherd  took  his  colony  to  plant 
a  new  town  and  a  college  at  Oberlin,  thousands  of  New 
Englanders  had  carried  their  ideals  and  their  traditions 

*  Professor  A.  B.  Hulbert,  Historic  Highways  of  America  (16  vols., 
1902-05),  has  given  much  detail  as  to  the  routes  to  the  West.  Another 
admirable  collection  is  that  of  Dr.  R.  G.  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels 
(32  vols.,  1904-07). 


Longitude     West 


from    Greenwich 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND      175 

into  the  wilderness.  There,  time  after  time,  had  they 
organized  church  and  school  side  by  side,  in  a  community 
where  each  settler  had  a  voice  in  the  control  of  local 
affairs,  and  might  impress  his  individuality  upon  a  new 
commonwealth  in  such  measure  as  was  possible  from 
his  training  and  ability.  Whether  the  descendant  of  the 
Puritan  emigrated  to  the  shores  of  the  Connecticut 
Kiver,  or  to  Ohio,  he  emigrated  in  the  same  way,  with 
the  same  ideals  steadfastly  set  before  his  eyes. 

The  first  New  England  settlement  in  the  Northwest 
Territory  was  made  on  the  Ohio  River,  at  Marietta,  by 
officers  and  men  of  the  Massachusetts,  REode  Island, 
and  Connecticut  line.^  These  soldiers  had,  on  March  1, 
1786,  met  at  the  "Bunch  of  Grapes"  Tavern  in  Boston, 
in  response  to  a  call  which  General  Ruf  us  Putnam  and 
General  Benjamin  Tupper  had  issued  to  every  county  in 
Massachusetts,  asking  that  one  or  two  delegates  be  sent 
to  the  appointed  place  on  that  day.  Only  eleven  persons 
responded,  but  the  Ohio  Land  Company  was  formed  then 
and  there.  ^  Through  one  of  the  directors,  the  Rev. 
Manasseh  Cutler  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  purchase  was 
made  of  a  large  tract  in  southeastern  Ohio ;  shares  were 
distributed  to  the  proprietors  according  to  the  amount 
each  paid  in,  with  a  reservation  of  one  section  (640  acres) 
for  schools,  one  section  for  religious  institutions,  and 
two  townships  for  a  college.  In  1786  the  town  of  Mari- 
etta was  laid  out  and  the  first  settlers  arrived.  A  Con- 
gregational church  was  formed  at  once  with  thirty-one 
members,  fourteen  from   Massachusetts,  sixteen   from 

^  See  map  opposite. 

3  J.  H.  Perkins,  Annals  of  the  West,  283,  284. 


176  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Connecticut,  and  one  from  Linlithgow,  Scotland.^  In 
1797  Muskingum  Academy,  the  mother  of  the  later 
Marietta  College,  was  founded,  —  eleven  years  after  the 
first  settler  had  arrived  in  Marietta. 

The  pioneers  of  Marietta  represented  very  accurately 
the  New  England  movement  to  the  West.  Rufus  Put- 
nam, the  leader  of  the  enterprise,  had  served  his  appren- 
ticeship in  the  wilderness,  first  with  Phineas  Lyman  as  a 
surveyor  of  the  Mississippi  tract,  then  as  a  general  in 
the  Revolution,  and  later  as  surveyor-general  of  the  dis- 
trict of  Maine.  ^  Upon  his  return  to  his  home  in  Rutland, 
Massachusetts,  he  wrote  to  General  Washington  urging 
that  bounty  lands  be  granted  in  Ohio,  as  there  "are 
thousands  in  this  quarter  who  will  migrate"  —  as  soon 
as  settlements  could  be  made  with  safety.^  The  first 
company  left  Dan  vers  on  the  first  day  of  December,  1787 ; 
the  second  left  Hartford  one  month  later.  Putnam  him- 
self was  after  his  removal  in  1790  identified  with  every 
movement  in  Ohio:  he  was  one  of  the  first  trustees  of 
Ohio  University,  active  in  forming  a  Bible  society,  a 
supporter  of  schools,  and  a  member  of  the  constitutional 
convention  of  Ohio  in  1803.  "  The  impress  of  his  char- 
acter is  strongly  marked  on  the  population  of  Marietta, 
in  their  buildings,  institutions,  and  manners.  "^  Among 

*  Rev.  C.  E.  Dickinson,  First  Congregational  Church  of  Marietta^  164. 
The  Massachusetts  members  were  from  Boston,  Middleton,  Brookfield, 
Chester,  Conway,  Rutland,  Westborough,  and  Chesterfield;  those  from 
Connecticut  had  lived  in  Colchester,  Canaan,  Lyme,  Lebanon,  North  Lyme, 
Saybrook,  and  Middletown.  llid.f  120. 

^  See  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  507. 

3  Dr.  S.  P.  Hildreth,  Biographical  and  Historical  Memoirs  of  the  Early 
Pioneer  Settlers  of  Ohio^  14,  95,  96. 

*  Ihid.,  119. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND      177 

his  Massachusetts  comrades  were  James  Varnum  of 
Dracut ;  General  Benjamin  Tupper  of  Stoughton ;  Colo- 
nel Ebenezer  Sproat  of  Middleborough ;  Rev.  Daniel 
Story  of  Boston,  the  first  minister  of  the  Marietta  colony ; 
Captain  William  Dana  of  Cambridge ;  Captain  Robert 
OHver  of  Boston,  president  of  the  Ohio  legislative  coun- 
cil, 1800  to  1803 ;  and  Major  Robert  Bradford,  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  governor  of  the  Plymouth  colony.  The 
movement  was  not,  however,  wholly  a  Massachusetts 
venture,  though  the  initiative  had  come  from  that  state : 
— there  were  men  from  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and 
New  Hampshire,  whose  names  are  inseparably  connected 
with  the  story  of  Marietta.  Such  an  one  was  Abraham 
Whipple,  of  Rhode  Island,  who  had  been  involved  in 
the  Gaspee  affair;*  Jonathan  Devol  of  Tiverton,  in  the 
same  state,  and  Griffin  Greene  of  Warwick.  From  New 
Hampshire  came  two  Gilmans  of  Exeter,  and  Dr.  Jabez 
True  of  Hampstead,  the  first  physician  in  Marietta.  From 
Middletown,  Connecticut,  the  pioneers  took  Return  Jona- 
than Meigs  as  surveyor  for  their  company.  Of  such  Puri- 
tan stuff  were  the  early  inhabitants  of  southeastern  Ohio.^ 

^  Hildreth,  Pioneer  Settlers,  127.  Whipple  was  born  in  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  in  1733.  After  the  burning  of  the  Gaspee,  he  received  the 
following  note  from  Sir  James  Wallace,  commander  of  the  frigate  Rose, 
in  Newport  harbor  :  — 

"  You,  Abraham  Whipple,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1772,  burned  his  ma- 
jesty's vessel,  the  Grape,  and  I  will  hang  you  at  the  yard-arm. 

James  Wallace.  '* 
The  following  was  Whipple's  reply :  — 

"To  Sir  James  Wallace: 

Sir,  —  Always  catch  a  man  before  you  hang  him. 

Abraham  Whipple." 

'  Hildreth,  Pioneer  Settlers,  gives  lives  of  twenty-six  Marietta  pioneers, 
every  one  with  a  Puritan  name  and  a  record  of  service  to  his  country. 


178  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

While  these  settlers  were  planting  New  England  tra- 
ditions on  the  Ohio  River,  their  friends  and  neighbors 
were  beginning  homes  in  the  wilderness  on  the  shores 
of  Lake  Erie.  From  Conneaut/  the  wave  of  settlement 
flowed  over  northeastern  Ohio.  In  1800  settlements  had 
been  begun  in  thirty-five  of  the  one  hundred  and  three 
townships  of  the  Western  Reserve  east  of  the  Cuyahoga, 
and  one  thousand  people  had  settled  there.^  By  1812 
nearly  half  the  state  was  dotted  with  towns  and  farms. 
To  Plymouth,  Ohio,  from  Plymouth,  Connecticut ;  to 
the  new  Norwalk  from  the  old;  to  Greenwich  from 
Greenwich  on  Long  Island  Sound,  —  the  very  names  of 
the  towns  indicate  the  origin  of  their  founders.  It  was 
said  of  the  first  settler  of  Butler  County,  who  came  in 
1801  from  Chelmsford,  Massachusetts,  that  he  was  in 

C.  M.  Walker,  Athens  County,  371,  372,  corrects  the  story  of  the  "coon- 
skin  library, "  which  had  stated  that  the  first  library  in  Ohio  was  provided 
at  Amestown  by  the  sale  of  coouskins  in  Boston  and  the  purchase  of  books 
with  the  proceeds.  Jacob  Burnet,  in  Notes  on  the  Early  Settlement  of  the 
Northwestern  Territory,  44,  comments  upon  the  retention  by  these  settlers 
of  many  of  the  customs  and  habits  of  their  Puritan  ancestors;  he  notes 
their  "veneration"  for  the  "institution  of  religion,  literature,  and  moral- 
ity," as  illustrated  by  their  immediate  organization  of  a  church  and  a 
school.  In  both  the  Ohio  Purchase  and  the  Symmes  Purchase  (made  for 
men  of  the  New  Jersey  line  in  the  southwestern  corner  of  Ohio),  section  29 
was  reserved  regularly  in  each  township  for  the  support  of  a  minister. 
There  was  also  in  each  a  reservation  of  land  for  a  college.  Doubtless 
many  of  the  Symmes  company  and  the  later  settlers  were  of  New  Eng- 
land stock.  See  Howe,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Ohio,  562. 

1  Settled  in  1796.  See  A.  B.  Hinsdale,  Old  Northwest,  362.  In  1796  Ohio 
had  five  bodies  of  population  :  Massachusetts  was  stationed  at  Marietta, 
New  Jersey  about  Cincinnati,  Virginia  at  Chillicothe,  Connecticut  in 
Western  Reserve,  and  the  "  seven  ranges  "  on  the  east  from  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia.  See  Alfred  Mathews,  Ohio,2S2,  233.  In  1798  the  population 
of  the  territory  was  five  thousand.  See  Burnet,  Notes,  288. 

*  J.  H.  Perkins,  Annals  of  the  West,  473.  See  map  opposite. 


90  Longitude        West 


from        Greenwich 


New  England 
Settlement 

In  Ohio 

1800 


New  England 

Settlement 


I  I  All  Other  Settlflment 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND      179 

every  way  fitted  for  pioneer  life,  since  his  forefathers 
had  suffered  just  such  toil  and  hardship  as  he  was  to 
meet,  when  they  helped  settle  Massachusetts,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Maine/  The  first  settlers  in  Ashtabula  County 
towns,  in  Conneaut  and  Austinsburgh,  were  from  Con- 
necticut, as  were  those  in  Burton  (Geauga  County). 
Some  families  went  from  Buffalo  by  water,  whereas 
others  struck  out  through  the  wilderness.  Although  the 
pioneer  settlers  arrived  only  in  1798  and  1799,  the  first 
church  in  the  Western  Reserve  was  formed  in  1801. 
The  nearest  mill  was  forty  miles  away.  The  founders  of 
Palmyra,  Deerfield,  and  Ravenna,  in  Portage  County, 
were  from  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  as  were  the 
pioneers  of  Lake  County.  General  Edward  Paine,  who 
began  the  village  of  Painesville,  was  born  in  Bolton, 
Connecticut,  had  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and 
at  the  age  of  fifty-four  removed  with  a  company  of  sixty- 
six  people  from  his  New  York  home.  Ellsworth,  in  Ma- 
honing County,  was  settled  by  Connecticut  people  with 
a  few  families  from  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania. 

A  typical  pioneer  was  James  Kilbourne  of  Granby, 
Connecticut,  who  formed  in  1802  a  company  with  seven 
associates  to  move  to  the  Northwest  Territory.  Kil- 
bourne was  sent  on  ahead  to  explore  the  country  and 
pick  out  a  tract  for  forty  families ;  upon  his  return  a 
^'  Scioto  Company  "  was  formed,  forty  persons  admitted, 
and  articles  of  association  signed.^  In  1803  a  school- 

1  This  was  Jeremiah  Betterfield.  J.  McBride,  Pioneer  Biography  of 
Butler  County,  ii,  161,  170. 

2  This  is  not  the  famous  Scioto  Company  of  1787,  which  sold  land  to 
the  ill-fated  Frenchmen  who  founded  Gallipolis  ;  for  that  company,  see 


180  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

house,  a  log  church,  a  blacksmith  shop,  and  twelve  cab- 
ins were  erected  where  Worthington  now  stands,  and 
one  hundred  persons  had  arrived  at  their  new  homes. 
Here  was  formed  the  first  Episcopal  church  in  Ohio, 
and  Worthington  College  was  chartered  in  1817,  with 
Mr.  Kilbourne  as  President.  Nor  did  that  energetic  pio- 
neer confine  his  labors  to  his  own  town,  Worthington ; 
he  served  in  Congress  and  in  the  Ohio  legislature,  and 
early  formed  an  abolition  society.^ 

When  the  people  of  Granville,  Massachusetts,  de- 
cided to  move,  their  first  care  was  to  select  that  "pe- 
culiar blending  of  hill  and  valley"  to  which  they  were 
accustomed.  Avoiding  swamps,  bottomlands  were  chosen, 
and  Granville,  a  New  England  town  in  central  Ohio, 
was  founded.  The  Congregational  church  of  twenty- 
four  members  was  organized  in  the  old  home  and  trans- 
planted, pastor,  deacons,  and  members,  with  the  colony.^ 
They  drew  up  a  sort  of  compact  and  a  constitution  by 
which  their  material  well-being  was  to  be  regulated,  — 
documents  which  bear  a  striking  similarity  to  the  Spring- 
field compact  of  1636,  though  they  were  formulated  a 
century  and  a  half  after  William  Pynchon  and  his  com- 
rades moved  to  the  Connecticut  River.  Having  organ- 
ized their  church  and  drawn  up  their  compact,  the  col- 
ony of  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  persons  took  leave 
of  their  Massachusetts  home,  and  for  forty-six  days  made 

Ohio  Arch,  and  Hist.  Soc.  Pub.f  iii,  107-136.  Joel  Barlow's  name  is  insep- 
arably connected  with  that  speculation. 

*  Ohio  Arch,  and  Hist.  Pub.,  iv,  31-43. 

'  Rev.  Benj.  Talbot  in  Papers  of  the  Ohio  Church  History  Society,  y,  30. 
A  coeducational  college  was  formed  here  in  1827.  See  N.  N.  Hill,  Jr. 
(ed.),  Licking  County,  449. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND      181 

their  way  toward  the  West.  When  they  arrived  at  the 
site  of  their  proposed  town^  they  released  their  oxen 
from  the  wagons,  and  then  Hstened  to  a  sermon  by  their 
pastor.  The  scene  takes  one  back  two  centuries,  to  the 
planting  of  Plymouth  or  of  Hartford ;  the  two  hundred 
years  had  altered  marvelously  little  the  Puritan  concep- 
tion of  the  emigrant's  first  duties  in  his  new  home.  To 
the  north,  the  Becket  Land  Company,  of  Becket,  Berk- 
shire County,  Massachusetts,  purchased  a  township  in 
Portage  County,  Ohio,  and  there  planted  the  town  of 
Windham  between  1811  and  1817.  The  two  upper  tiers 
of  townships  in  Portage  County  were  so  like  New  Eng- 
land that  the  fact  was  remarkable,  and  a  native  of  any 
other  state  was  rarely  to  be  found  there ;  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  the  country  was  a  mingling  of  New  England- 
ers  and  Pennsylvanians,  with  here  and  there  a  family 
from  Virginia,  Maryland,  or  the  Carolinas.^  Many  a 
country  in  the  central  and  southern  part  of  the  state 
had  the  same  heterogeneous  population ;  but  the  West- 
ern Reserve  was  almost  pure  Connecticut  stock,  save 
in  the  southeastern  portion,  where  might  be  found  such 
a  mixture  of  elements  as  that  which  has  been  described 
in  Portage  County. 

By  1810  the  frontier  line  in  Ohio  extended  in  a  curve 
from  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie  to  the  western  border  of 
the  state,  leaving  nearly  half  the  whole  area  unoccupied. 

1  R.  C.  Brown,  in  Hist,  of  Portage  County,  229,  238,  572.  One  can  see 
the  difficulty  of  drawing  a  line  between  New  England  stock  and  New 
Jersey  stock  in  Ohio,  as  when  Newark,  Ohio,  was  laid  out  by  a  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  man  on  the  plan  of  his  old  home  ;  but  the  older  Newark 
was  a  New  England  town,  and  the  new  Newark  is  very  like  its  near 
neighbor,  Granville,  which  reproduced  Granville  in  the  Bay  State. 


182  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Southerners  from  Virginia  and  Kentucky  had  pushed 
their  way  north  from  the  Ohio  River,  Pennsylvanians 
and  New  Yorkers  had  worked  inland  from  the  eastern 
border,  while  New  England  men  and  women  had  built 
homes  in  half  of  the  Western  Reserve,  in  the  Marietta 
region,  and  were  scattered  here  and  there  in  the  central 
and  southern  portions  of  the  state  as  well/  The  war  of 
1812  affected  outlying  settlements,  like  those  in  the 
northwestern  portion  of  the  state,  where  the  occupation 
of  such  counties  as  Medina  was  directly  retarded  by 
fear  of  the  Indians.^  The  return  of  peace  meant  open- 
ing up  new  lands,  for  the  savages  now  had  no  British 
allies  to  fall  back  upon  for  support,  and  were  gradually 
pushed  farther  and  farther  away  into  the  lands  across 
the  Mississippi.  But  in  the  east  certain  economic  con- 
ditions attendant  upon  the  war  also  stimulated  emigra- 
tion. The  last  years  of  the  conflict  had  borne  hard  upon 
the  population  of  the  New  England  coast,  what  with 
invasions  like  that  of  Falmouth  and  Portland,  and  the 
seizure  of  numbers  of  coasting  vessels.  Prices  had  risen 

*  See  map  on  the  opposite  page.  The  opening  of  even  such  rude  trails 
as  "  Zane's  Trace  "  had  an  enormous  influence  in  developing  Ohio.  Ebe- 
nezer  Zane  blazed  this  trail  in  1796,  from  Wheeling,  through  what  is  now 
Lancaster  in  Ohio,  to  Maysville,  Kentucky.  Congress  gave  him  the  pre- 
emption right  to  three  tracts  of  lands  for  his  service  in  making  the  road, 
one  of  which  he  located  in  Lancaster.  By  1797  many  settlers  were  at- 
tracted from  both  north  and  south  by  the  advantages  which  the  path 
offered,  and  betook  themselves  and  their  families  to  Ohio.  See  Howe, 
Hvit.  Coll.  of  Ohio,  ii,  328. 

^  N.  B.  Northrup,  Pioneer  Hist,  of  Medina  County,  7.  Its  settlement 
was  begun  in  1811-12,  but  the  war  checked  the  accession  of  newcomers 
till  1814.  Some  of  the  pioneers  of  1811  were  from  Ira,  Vermont,  Litch- 
field County,  Connecticut,  and  Southbury,  Connecticut.  Other  families 
came  in  1816  from  Vermont.  See  ibid.,  32,  88,  95,  125,  212. 


(NOBS.,.  BOtTON 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND      183 

in  consequence  of  the  war  as  well  as  of  a  succession  of 
poor  seasons  for  agriculture.  The  debtor  class  had  in- 
creased greatly,  and  many  persons  who  had  been  fairly 
prosperous  in  Jefferson's  day  found  themselves  beggared 
and  forced  to  begin  life  anew.  The  years  1815  and 
1816  saw  hundreds  of  families  setting  off  for  the  Ohio 
and  Kentucky  country,  afflicted  (so  the  newspapers  of 
Maine  asserted)  with  "  the  Ohio  fever."  ^  Stimulated  by 
the  reports  of  returning  settlers  and  travelers,  emigrants 
hastened  again  into  the  wilderness,  pushing  the  frontier 
line  out  to  the  Mississippi.  The  sales  of  public  lands 
were  greatly  increased  up  to  1819,  when  the  panic  of 
that  year  caused  a  decline  temporarily ;  from  1822  on, 
the  sales  again  increased,  the  speculations  reaching  a 
climax  just  before  the  panic  of  1837.  The  abandonment 
by  the  government  of  the  credit  system  of  sales  in  1821 
probably  affected  the  New  England  emigrants  but  little, 
for  they  were  accustomed  to  pay  for  their  lands  at  once, 
and  to  make  improvements  with  their  remaining  capital. 
From  1814  until  1837  a  ceaseless  stream  of  pioneers  took 
their  way  from  the  coast,  by  lake,  river,  road,  and  trail, 
to  people  the  prairie  lands  of  the  Northwest  Territory. 
After  the  Peace  of  Ghent  in  1815,  Ohio  developed 
more  rapidly  than  before,  but  along  the  lines  determined 
before  the  war,  —  to  the  north  and  west  on  a  New  Eng- 
land foundation,  to  the  south  on  Virginia-New-Jersey- 
New-England  lines,  while  all  these  elements  met  in  the 
centre,  with  Pennsylvanians  and  New  Yorkers  added. 
Timothy  Flint,  writing  in  1828,^  saw  an  essential  dis- 

^  Williamson,  Maine,  ii,  664,  665. 

'  Timothy  Flint,  Geography  and  History  of  the  Western  States,  ii,  350,  351. 


184  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

tinction  between  the  different  parts  of  the  state,  al- 
though he  admitted  that  the  history  of  one  log  cabin 
and  one  clearing  was  substantially  that  of  "an  hundred 
thousand."  The  emigrants  from  the  Northern  and 
Middle  States  he  found  were  mostly  young  people,  re- 
cently married,  with  caution  so  ingrained  that  they 
rarely  moved  into  the  newer  lands  without  having  first 
investigated  the  proposed  site,  either  in  person,  or  by 
some  trusted  agent.  Very  infrequently  did  such  im- 
migrants take  flocks  and  herds  farther  than  into  the 
eastern  or  southern  counties  of  Ohio,  but  a  load  of 
furniture,  a  gun,  and  a  dog  comprised  the  equipment  of 
hundreds.  Flint  estimated  that  his  description  applied  to 
three-fourths  of  the  ingoing  settlers  of  Ohio  and  Indiana. 
The  Southerners  he  found  were  mostly  middle-aged, 
with  families,  and  frequently  "large  establishments"  of 
flocks,  herds,  swine,  horses,  and  slaves.  Each  pioneer 
sought  land  like  that  which  he  had  known  in  his  old 
home  to  be  most  productive.  The  uplands,  which  are 
now  known  to  be  more  fertile  than  any  other  regions  of 
Ohio,  were  an  unknown  quantity  to  any  of  the  first 
settlers ;  they  were  suspicious  of  the  spacious  prairies 
which  are  the  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  Therefore  the  first  comers  here,  like  their  fellow 
emigrants  who  moved  later  to  Illinois  and  Indiana,  chose 
the  bottom  or  valley  lands,  and  avoided  the  tracts  which 
now  produce  most  abundantly  the  staple  cereals  of  that 
region.* 

The  Western  Reserve  filled  up  rapidly  with  Connecti- 
cut people,  who  not  only  gave  old  names  to  new  homes, 

*  H.  S.  Knapp,  Ashland  County ^  24. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND    185 

but  also  the  distinct  character  of  their  earlier  abode. 
Flint  found  there  a  large  and  compact  population,  dis- 
tinct from  any  other  in  Ohio,  and  noted  especially  the 
"  equal  dispersion  of  farms  over  the  surface,"  the  ten- 
dency to  support  schools  and  churches,  —  "exceedingly 
like  the  parent  people  from  which  they  sprung."  ^  The 
Connecticut  settlers  of  Medina  County  who  had  been 
used  to  making  dairying  a  prominent  feature  of  their 
farming,  introduced  it  very  early ;  in  1847  a  native  of 
Vermont  began  the  industry  on  a  large  scale,  and  it  has 
been  a  chief  source  of  revenue  to  the  county  ever  since. 
Agricultural  societies,  to  which  the  settlers  had  been 
used  at  home,  "  in  the  East,"  grew  up  here  quite  as 
a  matter  of  course.  By  1833  the  people  who  had  be- 
fore met  rather  informally  to  show  the  best  cattle  and 
products  and  compare  their  merits,  had  begun  to  have 
such  societies  intermittently;  the  permanent  organiza- 
tion dates  from  1845.^ 

Oberlin,  in  Lorain  County,  deserves  more  than  pass- 
ing mention.  In  1833,  when  the  site  of  the  future  town 
was  still  a  wilderness,  a  tract  three  miles  square  was 
secured,  very  level,  with  a  rather  stiff  clay  soil,  covered 
with  beech  and  maple  trees.  Here  a  number  of  famiHes, 

*  Timothy  Flint,  Geography  and  History  of  the  Western  States ^  ii,  362. 
Note  the  names  of  towns  in  northern  Ohio,  —  New  Lyme,  Orwell,  Cole- 
brook,  Windsor,  Farmington,  Newton,  Northfield,  Amherst,  New  Haven, 
Andover,  Hartford,  and  many  more  which  call  to  mind  their  New  Eng- 
land prototypes. 

2  Perrin,  Battle,  and  Goodspeed  (compilers),  Hist,  of  Medina  County, 
206-210.  No  author  is  assigned  for  this  article.  It  is  not  certain  that  the 
Southerners  did  not  introduce  county  fairs  as  early  as  the  New  England- 
ers  did.  The  subject  ought  to  be  investigated,  for  the  movement  is  an 
interesting  and  profitable  one. 


186  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

mostly  from  New  Ed  gland,  witli  a  few  from  New  York 
and  northeastern  Ohio,  gathered  to  plant  a  town,  a 
church,  and  a  college,  with  homes  for  themselves  and 
their  children.  Kev.  John  Shipherd,  born  in  New  York, 
but  a  Vermonter  by  training,  and  his  friend  Philo 
Stewart,  also  reared  in  Vermont,  but  born  in  Connecti- 
cut, were  the  leaders  in  this  movement,  which  was 
designed  especially  to  be  a  missionary  enterprise  to  im- 
press itself  upon  the  surrounding  country,  and  train 
laborers  to  work  in  lands  across  the  ocean  for  the 
Christian  cause.  Mr.  Stewart  was  especially  anxious 
that  a  school  be  founded  where  study  and  labor  might 
be  combined :  where  students  might  defray  their  ex- 
penses by  manual  labor,  and  yet  keep  on  with  their 
studies.  He  had  been  educated  in  the  academy  of  Paw- 
let,  Vermont,  where  he  had  studied  and  worked  in  odd 
moments  in  his  uncle's  shop.  In  that  academy,  too, 
young  men  and  young  women  had  worked  and  studied 
side  by  side;  his  school  must,  then,  include  manual 
training  and  coeducation.* 

Having  secured  the  land  from  its  New  Haven  owners, 
together  with  a  five-hundred-acre  tract  for  a  "  Manual 
Labor  School,"  Mr.  Shipherd  gathered  together  colo- 
nists, who  were  all  asked  to  subscribe  to  a  covenant 
which  had  been  drawn  up.  Here  the  settlers  vowed 
themselves  to  a  life  of  simplicity,  to  especial  devotion 
to  church  and  school,  and  to  earnest  labor  in  the  mis- 
sionary cause.  All  were  Whigs,  feeling  it  "  almost  as 
necessary  to  be  Whigs  as  to  be  Christians."  ^  Their  early 
political  affiliations  did  not  prevent  them  later  from 

>  J.  H.  Fairchild,  Oberlin,  9-16.  »  Ibid.,  109. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND    187 

being  thoroughgoing  abohtionists ;  they  voted  with  the 
Liberty  party  in  1840  and  1844,  with  the  Freesoilers  in 
1848,  and  ever  after  1854  with  the  Republicans. 

Nor  were  the  Oberlin  settlers  content  with  one  mis- 
sionary enterprise ;  Olivet  College  in  Michigan,  founded 
in  1844,  is  a  child  of  Oberlin,  as  is  Tabor  College, 
founded  in  1851  in  Iowa.  Oberlin  graduates  helped  to 
build  Hinsdale  College  in  Michigan ;  Ripon  College  in 
Wisconsin ;  Iowa  College  in  Grinnell,  Iowa ;  Drury 
College  in  Springfield,  Missouri ;  and  Carleton  College 
in  Northfield,  Minnesota.  President  Fairchild  says  that 
the  impulse  of  a  new  college,  growing  from  small  be- 
ginnings, has  seemed  to  impress  many  Oberlin  students, 
and  they  have  gone  forth  with  the  thought  of  under- 
taking a  similar  enterprise.  He  believes  that  such  an 
impulse  would  hardly  be  a  factor  among  the  students 
of  an  old,  solidly  established  college.  "  It  comes  when 
college-building  is  a  part  of  the  education."  ^ 

The  church  at  Oberlin  was  organized  in  1834,  witl^ 
sixty-two  members;  its  confession  of  faith  was  of  the 
New  England  Calvinistic  type,  but  the  church  neverthe- 
less connected  itself  with  the  Cleveland  Presbytery, 
under  the  "  Plan  of  Union  "  already  familiar  to  stu- 
dents of  New  York  church  history.  The  same  plan  was 
followed  by  practically  all  the  early  settlers  of  the 
Western  Reserve,  whose  churches,  while  Congregational 
in  their  constitution  and  confession,  maintained  their 

*  Ibid.,  152, 153.  John  Brown*s  father  was  a  trustee  of  Oberlin  as  early 
as  1835,  and  his  younger  brothers  and  sisters  were  students  here,  while 
Brown  himself  helped  surrey  some  of  the  college  lands  in  West  Virginia. 
Ibid.,  157. 


188  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

outward  fellowship  through  connection  with  some  pres- 
bytery. The  Congregational  Church  of  Granville,  which 
had  been  organized  in  Granville,  Massachusetts,  and 
had  been  transplanted  with  the  settlers,  had  become 
involved  in  a  church  quarrel,  which  led  in  1827  to  the 
division  of  the  old  church  into  two  Presbyterian  con- 
gregations, while  the  Congregational  Church  continued 
its  own  existence  with  a  remnant  of  its  former  member- 
ship. A  little  later  an  Episcopal  church  was  the  result 
of  another  quarrel.  In  about  a  year  after  their  division, 
the  two  Presbyterian  churches  and  the  Congregational 
one  reunited  under  a  "  Plan  of  Union,"  and  joined  the 
Licking  County  conference  because  the  church  was  iso- 
lated in  Christian  fellowship.  This  church  also  became 
a  practically  total  abstinence  organization,  for  after  1831 
it  admitted  no  one  who  "drank,  bought,  sold,  or 
manufactured  ardent  spirits,  except  for  medicinal  or 
mechanical  purposes."  * 

When  Ohio  was  admitted  as  a  state,  one  condition 
was  made  which  formed  a  precedent  followed  by  most 
states  ever  since.  In  every  township  one  whole  section 
was  to  be  set  apart  for  the  support  of  schools;  —  in 
this  state,  as  in  most  others,  section  sixteen  of  each 
township  was  so  reserved.^  Thus  the  government  put 
itself  on  record  as  the  advocate  of  public  education,  and 
a  precedent  was  established  which  has  given  character 
not  only  to  the  states  admitted  after  1803,  but  to  the 
whole  nation  as  well. 

1  Rev.  Henry  Bushnell,  Granville^  Ohio,  130,  210,  213. 
'  Beginning  with  the  admission  of  Wisconsin  in  1848,  section  36  has 
been  reserved  as  well  as  section  16. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND    189 

Although  provision  was  made  thus  early  for  Ohio 
schools,  nevertheless,  all  education  before  1821  was 
purely  voluntary,  no  public  school  system  having  been 
evolved.  The  legislature  simply  authorized  the  forma- 
tion of  school  companies,  and  passed  some  regulations 
as  to  the  universities  of  Oxford  and  Miami.  In  1821, 
however,  a  recommendatory  law  was  passed  providing 
for  the  support  of  common  schools ;  four  years  later 
the  law  was  changed  to  a  compulsory  statute,  the  alter- 
ation being  largely  the  work  of  Judge  Ephraim  Cutler, 
a  member  of  the  state  legislature  sent  by  constituents  in 
the  Western  Reserve.  Harvey  Rice,  born  in  Conway, 
Massachusetts,  who  had  moved  to  Cleveland  in  1824, 
was  in  1851  made  chairman  of  the  committee  on  schools 
in  the  State  Senate,  and  here  he  prepared  and  intro- 
duced a  bill  organizing  the  common  school  system  of 
Ohio  as  it  is  to-day.^ 

With  the  story  of  the  founding  of  Yale  College  and 
of  Dartmouth  in  mind,  it  would  be  surprising  not  to 
find  in  its  early  history  an  institution  of  higher  learn- 
ing in  northern  Ohio.  Western  Reserve  College,  char- 
tered in  1826,  was  modeled  after  Yale,  both  in  its  course 
of  study  and  in  the  organization  of  its  governing  board, 
where  the  majority  was  to  be  made  up  of  clergymen 
in  both  cases.  In  the  beginning  this  majority  had  four 
out  of  seven  men  from  Yale.  Its  first  president  was 
Dr.  George  E.  Pierce,  a  graduate  of  the  New  Haven 
institution  in  1816,  who  was  said  to  have  been  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  the  Connecticut  idea  of  a  college. 

^  "  Autobiography  of  Harvey  Rice,"  in  Annals  of  the  Early  Settlers* 
Association  of  Cuyahoga  County f  iii,  34-39. 


190  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Most  of  his  faculty  were  Yale  men,  and  for  years  the 
new  college  followed  the  lines  of  the  old  in  every  detail 
of  its  organization,  administration,  and  courses  of  study. 
It  has  been  from  the  first  a  practice  for  Yale  and  West- 
ern Reserve  to  have  from  time  to  time  what  one  may 
almost  call  an  interchange  of  instructors,  for  Yale 
graduates  teach  in  the  western  college  and  graduates 
of  Western  Reserve  are  called  to  Yale,  to  help  in  carry- 
ing out  the  work  of  their  own  college's  Alma  Mater. 
Thus  the  two  colleges  have  kept  in  closest  touch  with 
one  another,  —  the  old  Yale  in  the  old  Connecticut,  the 
new  Yale  in  Connecticut's  Western  Reserve/ 

In  the  matter  of  town  and  county  organization,  Ohio 
shows  a  development  related  more  nearly  to  New  York 
than  it  is  to  either  New  England  or  Virginia.  It  was 
but  natural  that  a  state  in  which  the  population  was  so 
mixed  as  it  was  in  Ohio  should  adopt  a  compromise 
between  the  Virginia  county  and  the  New  England 
town ;  the  New  York  system  showed  a  middle  way 
which  would  preserve  both  organizations  in  harmony. 
Moreover,  the  counties  of  Ohio  were  erected  in  advance 
of  any  settlement  save  that  of  the  most  haphazard  and 
isolated  sort ;  only  after  the  people  had  made  very  con- 
siderable headway  in  taking  up  lands  and  planting 
towns  was  any  other  civil  administration  required  than 
that  afforded  by  the  county  organization. 

The  county  organization  was  in  1831  based  upon  the 
election  of  three  county  commissioners,^  whose  term  was 

*  For  the  close  connection  between  the  two  colleges,  see  Dr.  Northrup, 
"  Yale  in  its  Relation  to  the  Development  of  the  Country,"  in  the  Record 
of  the  Bicentennial  Celebration  of  Yale  University,  307-309. 

^Laws  of  Ohioy  1831,  44,  267-280,  315,  316,  344,  413,  484,  485. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND    191 

three  years,  and  who  held  annual  sessions.  These  com- 
missioners were  to  erect  in  their  county  a  courthouse, 
of  which  the  county  sheriff  was  to  have  charge,  and  a 
poorhouse,  for  whose  oversight  they  appointed  three 
directors;  besides  these  duties,  they  were  to  examine 
county  accounts,  administer  oaths,  etc.  To  these  officers 
was  intrusted  the  matter  of  erecting  townships,  and 
calling  for  the  election  of  township  officers,  —  three 
trustees,  a  clerk,  two  overseers  of  the  poor,  a  treasurer, 
three  fence  viewers,  a  constable,  and  supervisors  of 
highways.  The  township  trustees  have  charge  of  the 
work  of  laying  off  school  districts;  the  electors  then 
choose  the  school  officers.  By  the  county  judges  of  the 
court  of  common  pleas  is  determined  the  number  of 
justices  of  the  peace  for  each  township  ;  when  this  num- 
ber is  settled  upon,  the  electors  choose  them.  The 
county  government  comprises,  besides  the  commissioners 
and  judges  already  mentioned,  an  assessor,  prosecuting 
attorney,  auditor,  recorder,  treasurer,  sheriff,  and  coroner. 
There  are,  therefore,  the  two  complete  local  administra- 
tive and  judicial  bodies,  the  county  taking  precedence  of 
the  township,  which  is  subordinate  to  it,  as  the  county  is 
subordinate  to  the  state.  The  matter  of  roads  shows  the 
same  administrative  divisions,  for  there  are  state  roads, 
with  their  own  commissioners;  county  roads,  with  their 
own  viewers  and  surveyors;  and  township  roads,  with 
their  own  officers.  Thus  the  development,  while  not 
deviating  far  from  the  New  York  pattern,  has  not  fol- 
lowed exactly  the  New  England  system,  which  it  never- 
theless recalls. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  nature  of  Ohio 


192  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

settlement.  A  frontier  built  by  New  Englanders  at  the 
North  joined  one  constructed  by  Southerners,  New  Jer- 
sey men  and  their  neighbors  from  the  South,  till  the 
whole  state,  save  only  the  Western  Reserve  and  such 
localities  as  Granville  and  Marietta,  had  assumed  a  com- 
posite character  which  differentiated  it  from  any  of  the 
old  states.  Yet  New  England  tradition  had  been  im- 
pressed upon  Ohio ;  it  had  crystallized  in  the  New  Con- 
necticut, and  reproduced  itself  in  Granville.  Into  the 
new  West  the  school,  the  church,  and  the  town-meeting 
had  been  carried ;  they  were  changed,  for  here,  as  in 
New  York,  the  man  from  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut 
had  been  forced  to  compromise  with  his  neighbor  from 
Pennsylvania  or  Virginia  whose  ideas  of  institutions 
differed  from  those  of  the  Puritan.  But  the  change  had 
not  concealed  the  original  type,  nor  obscured  the  ideal 
which  lay  at  the  foundations  of  all  three  institutions/ 

»  See  maps  opposite  pages  206,  210,  236,  246. 

Professor  Chamberlain,  of  Vassar  College,  has  drawn  the  author's  atten- 
tion to  a  little  volume  by  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  entitled  Our  Country^  pub- 
lished about  1885  by  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society  (New  York, 
n.  d.).  Dr.  Strong,  on  pages  145  and  146  of  that  volume,  gives  a  curious 
story  of  two  adjoining  townships  in  the  Western  Reserve.  One  was 
founded  by  a  home  missionary  with  high  ideals,  who  drew  about  him  a 
selected  body  of  settlers.  At  the  centre  of  the  township,  where  eight 
roads  met,  was  set  a  church,  and  soon  afterward  "  followed  the  school- 
house  and  the  public  library,"  with  an  academy  a  little  later  on.  In  this 
township  (which  Dr.  Strong  does  not  name,  but  which  has  been  identified 
as  Talmadge  township  of  Summit  County)  was  opened  the  first  school  for 
the  deaf  in  Ohio. 

The  other  township  (not  named  by  Dr.  Strong,  but  identified  as  Stow 
township  in  Summit  County)  was  first  settled  by  an  infidel  who  "  ex- 
pressed the  desire  that  there  might  never  be  a  Christian  Church  in  the 
township."  Dr.  Strong  says  that  to  his  knowledge  there  has  never  been 
one.  He  then  draws  inferences  distinctly  unfavorable  to  Stow  township. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND    193 

By  1840  Ohio's  vacant  land  was  all  occupied,  and 
the  state  had  passed  out  of  the  pioneer  stage;  it  had 
no  longer  a  frontier,  it  had  ceased  to  be  the  "far  west," 
for  that  ever  receding  region  had  moved  on  to  Illinois 
and  the  lands  beyond  the  Mississippi.  The  population 
had  become  comparatively  dense ;  as  the  number  of  in- 
habitants increased,  the  whole  state  became  more  homo- 
geneous, and  New  Englanders  were  found  everywhere, 
side  by  side  with  New  York  men,  families  from  Penn- 
sylvania, and  settlers  from  Virginia.  Cincinnati  had  in 
1841  representatives  of  many  states,  besides  a  large  per- 
centage of  immigrants  of  foreign  birth.*  The  census  of 
1850  showed  that  23,000  of  Ohio's  people  had  emi- 
grated from  Connecticut,  19,000  from  Massachusetts, 
14,000  from  Vermont,  84,000  from  New  York,  and 

*  A  population  including  12,292  males  was  made  up  as  follows  (ex- 
cluding 46  per  cent  of  foreigners  ;  only  54  per  cent  were  of  American 
birth,  —  a  significant  fact  to  be  noted  when  one  recalls  the  large  German 
element  in  Cincinnati's  population  to-day)  :  — 

Pennsylvania 1210 

Ohio 1112 

New  Jersey 795 

New  York 672 

Virginia 519 

Maryland 537 

Massachusetts 414 

Kentucky 349 

Connecticut 230 

Vermont 118 

Maine 96 

Delaware 90 

New  Hampshire 70 

Rhode  Island    . 62 

(The  rest  scattering) 
See  Charles  Cist,  Cincinnati  in  IS^l^  38,  39. 


194  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

9000  from  Maine,  Khode  Island,  and  New  Hampshire. 
A  decade  later,  the  proportions  had  changed,  though 
Ohio  still  counted  53,000  New  England  born  men  and 
women  among  her  inhabitants.  The  emigrants  from  the 
coast  had  aided  not  a  little  in  the  labor  of  building  a 
new  state;  by  1860  their  sons  and  daughters  had  joined 
a  host  of  other  pioneers  from  New  England  to  repeat 
the  work  their  fathers  had  done,  this  time  upon  a  new 
frontier  far  across  the  Mississippi,  beyond  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

Here,  as  in  all  the  preceding  chapters,  many  more  sources  of  informa- 
tion have  gone  into  the  preparation  of  the  maps  illustrating  the  text  than 
can  be  cited  in  the  footnotes  or  enumerated  here.  The  most  careful  work 
on  Ohio  local  history  has  been  done  in  the  New  England  centres,  where 
the  self-consciousness  of  the  settlers  has  tended  to  full  records  of  their 
life,  as  it  had  done  in  the  case  of  their  ancestors. 

A  good  starting-point  is  Henry  Howe's  Historical  Collections  of  Ohio, 
new  edition,  2  vols.,  1904.  The  Annals  of  the  "  Cuyahoga  County  Early 
Settlers'  Association  "  (3  vols.)  is  distinctly  like  the  work  of  Massachu- 
setts historians.  The  State  Archaeological  and  Historical  Society  has 
thirteen  volumes  of  Publications  which  are  very  good.  Two  county  his- 
tories for  which  no  person  assumes  the  responsibility  as  editor  or  compiler 
are,  nevertheless,  of  some  value  :  The  History  of  Portage  County,  Ohio 
(Chicago,  1885),  and  The  History  of  Medina  County  and  Ohio  (Chicago, 
1881).  N.  B.  Northrup  also  has  a  good  Pioneer  History  of  Medina  County 
(Medina,  1861).  H.  N.  Hill,  Jr.,  has  compiled  s,  History  of  Licking  County 
(Newark,  Ohio,  1881)  ;  H.  S.  Knapp  has  done  a  good  piece  of  work  in 
compiling  A  History  of  the  Pioneer  and  Modem  Times  of  Ashland  County 
(Philadelphia,  1863).  Alfred  Mathews's  Ohio  and  her  Western  Reserve  is 
a  rather  popular  study,  but  suggestive  for  the  work  of  New  Englanders 
in  Ohio,  James  McBride  has  a  Pioneer  Biography  (sketches  of  the  lives  of 
early  settlers  in  Butler  County)  in  two  volumes,  which  is  a  good  piece  of 
work.  Dr.  S.  P.  Hildreth's  Biographical  and  Historical  Memoirs  of  the 
Early  Pioneer  Settlers  of  Ohio  gives  an  excellent  idea  of  Marietta,  its  set- 


THE  PLANTING  OF  A  SECOND  NEW  ENGLAND    195 

tiers,  and  its  institutions.  Rev.  Henry  Bushnell's  History  of  Granville  and 
President  James  Fairchild's  Oberlin  are  indispensable,  and  the  standard 
for  their  towns.  Rev.  Dr.  C.  E.  Dickinson's  Century  of  Church  Life  gives 
the  history  of  the  Marietta  church  founded  by  the  pioneers.  Charles  Cist 
has  a  good  volume  on  Cincinnati  in  18 ^1. 

The  Laws  of  Ohio  (Columbus,  1831)  are  the  source  for  the  town  and 
county  system. 

The  work  of  Timothy  Flint  which  is  referred  to  in  the  text  is  A  Con- 
densed Geography  and  History  of  the  Western  States  (2  vols.,  Cincinnati, 
1828),  —  a  storehouse  of  information.  J.  H.  Perkins's  Annals  of  the  West 
(Cincinnati,  1846)  is  full  of  anecdotes  for  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois. 
Jacob  Burnet,  in  Notes  on  the  Early  Settlement  of  the  Northwestern  Territory 
(New  York,  1847),  makes  many  shrewd  comments  on  the  character  of 
early  settlers.  J.  M.  Peck's  Cruide  for  Emigrants  (Boston,  1831)  is  very 
suggestive.  Professor  B.  A.  Hinsdale's  Old  Northwest  is  still  of  value. 

Professor  A.  B.  Hulbert*s  work.  Historic  Highways  (16  vols.),  referred 
to  in  this  chapter,  supplements  with  much  detail  the  very  general  state- 
ments made  in  this  chapter  on  routes  to  Ohio  from  the  east,  as  do  Dr. 
R.  G.  Thwaites's  collections  in  32  vols.,  —  Early  Western  Travels. 

The  New  England  Magazine  (New  Series,  1889-1908)  has  a  number 
of  articles  of  varying  excellence,  which  gives  information  of  New  Eng- 
landers  in  the  West. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  JOINING  OF  TWO  FRONTIERS :  INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS 

1809-1865 

The  census  of  1800  gave  Illinois  two  hundred  and 
fifteen  inhabitants,  and  Indiana  about  the  same  number. 
These  inhabitants  were  either  the  French  at  Vincennes, 
and  at  the  forts  upon  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio,  or 
the  few  trappers  and  hunters  of  the  Daniel  Boone  type 
who  had  crossed  the  river  from  Kentucky  or  Virginia. 
Between  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  and 
the  opening  of  hostilities  in  1812,  the  population  had 
increased  about  the  three  centres,  —  Vincennes  and  the 
two  forts, — but  the  two  territories  were  still,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  a  wilderness.  Yet  here  and  there  among  the 
forerunners  of  incoming  settlement  might  even  then  be 
found  a  venturesome  New  Englander.  In  1805  a  native 
of  Connecticut  who  had  tried  frontier  life  in  Kentucky 
pushed  with  his  family  into  the  woods  of  Gibson  County, 
Indiana;^  and  Joshua  Atwater,  born  in  Westfield, 
Massachusetts,  took  his  "New  England  habits  and 
education  "  with  him  to  Madison  County,  Illinois,  where 
he  taught  school,  and  founded  in  1809  what  was  prob- 
ably the  first  charitable  institution  in  that  territory.^ 
But  such  cases  were  the  exceptional  ones ;  men  like 
these  formed  only  the  vanguard  of  the  advancing  army 

^  J.  T.  Tarte,  compiler,  Hist,  of  Gibson  County y  65.  See  map  opposite 
page  182. 

'  J.  T.  Hair,  compiler,  Gazetteer  of  Madison  Courdy^  136,  n. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  197 

of  ttose  settlers,  who,  once  the  treaty  of  Ghent  had 
opened  the  way,  resumed  their  march  westward  and 
passed  beyond  the  confines  of  Ohio  to  the  prairies  and 
woods  of  Indiana  and  Illinois.  Indiana,  however,  never 
received  any  large  accession  of  New  Englanders;  the 
typical "  Hoosier"  of  to-day  is  far  more  like  a  Kentuckian 
or  a  Carolinian  than  he  is  like  a  New  Yorker  or  a  man 
from  the  Bay  State.  In  Illinois  the  Puritan  element  is 
found  chiefly  in  the  northern  third  of  the  state.  The 
history  of  settlement  in  both  regions  is,  however,  the 
history  of  a  frontier  pushed  north  by  Southerners,  and 
of  settlement  by  Puritan  stock  working  down  from  the 
North  toward  the  centre,  where  both  met  and  strove  for 
supremacy  in  state  councils. 

Throughout  the  territorial  period  there  was  "  nothing 
like  a  New  England  town  "  in  Indiana,^  nor  was  there 
any  appreciable  number  of  New  England  settlers.  The 
tide  from  the  East  was  up  to  1816  flowing  into  western 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio;  and  although 
southern  Indiana  was  filling  up  with  farms  and  towns, 
the  new  population  was  chiefly  from  Kentucky,  Ten- 

^  Introduction  to  the  Executive  Journal  of  Indiana  Territory,  78.  (In 
Indiana  State  Hist.  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  iii).  There  were,  however,  at  least 
two  attempts  to  plant  such  towns.  In  the  Annals  of  Congress,  1804  -  05, 
page  872,  is  a  petition  of  Benjamin  Strong  of  Vermont,  for  a  tract  of 
land  six  miles  square  in  Indiana  Territory  for  a  colony.  In  the  State  Papers, 
vol.  i  on  Public  Lands,  page  288,  is  a  petition  of  December  1806,  from 
inhabitants  of  Ovid,  New  York,  for  the  privilege  of  purchasing  a  whole 
township  "  on  the  W^hite  River,  or  Wabash,"  in  Indiana  territory.  They 
make  this  request  "  that  by  their  compact  settlement  thereon,  they  may 
be  the  better  able  to  aid  each  other  in  the  support  of  schools  and  religion.  " 
Ovid  was  settled  1790-91  and  the  succeeding  years  by  emigrants  from 
New  Jersey,  "  Pennsylvania  on  the  New  Jersey  line,"  New  Englanders, 
and  eastern  New  Yorkers.  Hotchkin,  Western  New  Yorkf  392. 


198  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

nessee,  or  the  Southern  States  along  the  Atlantic  coast. 
The  territorial  offices  had  been  filled  almost  without 
exception  by  Virginians,  but  with  the  coming  of  state- 
hood new  elements  entered,  and  the  Southerners  were 
no  longer  in  control.  The  extremely  cold  seasons  of 
1816-17  were  responsible  for  the  failure  of  crops  in 
the  East,  and  many  farmers  from  western  New  York 
and  northwestern  Pennsylvania  built  large  boats  upon 
which  they  moved  their  families  and  household  goods 
down  the  Ohio  River  into  the  southeastern  part  of 
Indiana, — into  Dearborn,  Jennings,  Switzerland,  and 
Washington  counties.  Here  they  generally  formed 
neighborhood  settlements.  During  the  years  between 
1816  and  1820  Pennsylvanians  usually  held  the  rudder 
politically,  aided  here  and  there  by  a  "  stray  Yankee."  * 
These  newcomers  were  not,  on  the  whole,  pure  New 
England  stock,  nor  had  they  moved  directly  from  that 
section,  but  they  brought  the  "Yankee"  axe,  with  the 
crooked  helve;  they  used  oxen  for  rolling  logs,  and 
they  built  tiieir  cabins  square,  not  oblong  with  the 
chimney  in  one  end,  making  a  fifth  corner  like  the  let- 
ter "V,"  as  in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  style  of 
frontier  architecture.  While  the  Kentuckians  built  only 
rude  horse-mills,  these  "Yankees"  erected  water-mills  on 
the  streams.  Although  the  acute  economic  distress  had 
been  the  directly  impelling  motive  for  their  emigration, 
the  remark  of  one  who  had  been  elected  a  judge  in  In- 
diana at  this  time,  and  was  on  a  visit  to  his  old  home, 
doubtless  voiced  the  secret  aspiration  of  many  an  ambi- 

1  Rev.  Dr.  Wood,  in  Rev.  F.  C.  Holliday's  Indiana  Methodism,  90,  91. 
Dr.  Wood  was  a  circuit-rider  and  preacher  in  Indiana  in  its  early  days. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  199 

tlous  young  Eastern  man,  when  he  said:  "Do  you 
think  I  would  stay  here  and  be  a  common  man,  when 
I  can  go  there  and  be  ajicdgef^^^ 

Gradually,  beginning  after  the  panic  of  1819,  the 
New  England  emigrants  filtered  into  the  towns  and 
counties  of  Indiana.  A  family  from  Brattleboro,  Ver- 
mont, came  in  1820 ;  Calvin  Fletcher  from  Ludlow  in 
the  same  state,  the  following  year;  one  of  the  early 
settlers  of  Cass  County  came  in  1826  from  his  birth- 
place, New  Canaan,  Connecticut ;  one  of  the  first  phy- 
sicians in  southeastern  Indiana  came  in  1821  from  Mas- 
sachusetts. One  reads  sketches  of  many  men  of  New 
England  birth  who  came  in  these  early  days  from  Ohio 
and  New  York,  where  they  had  lived  for  a  few  years, 
and  at  this  period  moved  on  to  cheaper  land.  A  more 
roundabout  emigration  resulted  in  opening  up  Wayne 
and  Randolph  counties,  which  in  an  early  day  showed 
some  features  of  Puritan  origin,  brought  in  by  Quakers 
of  Nantucket  descent,  with  others  who  had  come  of 
Cape  Cod  and  Pennsylvania  stock.  They  removed  either 
from  Guilford  County  (and  the  adjoining  counties  of 
Eockland,  Chatham,  and  Rockingham)  in  North  Caro- 
lina ;  or  the  eastern  counties  of  Blount,  Sevier,  Greene, 
and  Jefferson,  in  Tennessee.  But  they  all  brought 
strong  prejudices  against  slavery,  and  maintained  them 
in  the  midst  of  neighbors  who  sympathized  with  the 
South.^ 

1  Ibid.,  91. 

2  See  map  opposite. 

E.  Tucker,  Hist,  of  Randolph  County,  Indiana,  82,  462  ;  and  Levi 
Coffin,  Reminiscences,  4,  6,  11.  Here  are  the  families  of  Coffin,  Starbuck, 
and  Swain,  all  of  whom  were  descendants  of  the  Nantucket  Quakers  who 


200  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  great  influx  of  New  England  settlement  came  in 
1830  and  the  years  succeeding  that  date.  Families  came 
either  singly,  or  in  groups  of  two  or  three  households, 
most  of  them  between  1830  and  1837,  settling  the 
northern  tier  of  counties  from  Steuben  on  the  eastern 
border  to  Lake  on  the  Illinois  boundary ;  ^  going  in 
smaller  numbers  to  the  second  tier ;  ^  and  only  here  and 

removed  to  Guilford  County,  1770-76.  Also  J.  H.  Wheeler,  North 
Carolina^  ii,  170  ;  and  A.  W.  Young,  Wayne  County  (Indiana),  29,  30,  98. 
1  See  Hist,  of  Steuben  County,  423-819.  Also  Hist,  of  DeKalb  County, 
540-864  ;  Counties  of  Lagrange  and  Noble,  315-126,  429-477.  Almost  all 
the  sketches  of  settlers  in  both  these  counties  show  men  of  Connecticut  or 
of  Vermont  birth,  with  some  from  Massachusetts,  and  fewer  still  from 
New  Hampshire.  In  the  Hist,  of  Elkhart  County,  362-364,  is  given  a  list 
of  300  members  of  the  Pioneers*  Association,  who  came  between  1828  and 
1840.  They  are  classified  as  to  nativity  as  follows  :  — 

Ohio 102 

New  York , 46 

Indiana 33 

Pennsylvania 32 

Virginia 19 

Maryland 5 

Kentucky 3 

Connecticut •     •     > 3 

Vermont .        3 

New  Jersey 2 

Tennessee 2 

Bhode  Island 1 

New  Hampshire t        1 

Maine 1 

North  Carolina         1 

South  Carolina 1 

A  large  emigration  came  from  Orange  County,  New  York,  1832-40  ; 
many  of  these  emigrants  were  of  New  England  stock,  as  was  the  author's 
grandfather,  who  moved  with  these  emigrants  in  1837  and  settled  at  Mid- 
dlebury  in  this  county.  See  also  Hist  of  St.  Joseph  County,  375  ff . 

^  Hist,  of  Allen  County,  124, 157  ;  Goodspeed  and  Blanchard,  Counties  of 
Whitley  and  Noble,  164-309  ;  326-477. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  201 

there  Into  the  third.*  To  the  south,  some  few  drifted 
in  and  around  the  Quakers  of  Richmond  and  Wayne 
County ;  ^  others  may  be  traced  in  the  southeastern  cor- 
ner/ and  in  Evansville/  In  the  central  portion  of  the 
state,  very  few  came  in  the  early  years ;  ^  but  in  Indian- 
apolis there  is  to-day  a  "  New  England  Society  "  made 
up  of  those  emigrants  who  were  born  in  the  New 
England  States. 

Certain  counties  came  gradually  during  these  years 
to  be  known  as  New  England  counties.  These  lay  in 
general  along  the  northern  border,  dipping  south  on 
the  eastern  boundary,  with  scattered  families  in  the  cen- 
tre. La  Grange  County,  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the 
state,  will  illustrate  the  point.  The  leading  spirit  for 
many  years  in  the  town  of  "Wolcottville  was  one  George 
Wolcott,  born  in  Torrington,  Connecticut,  who  came  to 
Indiana  in  1837.  Old  settlers  whose  lives  are  woven 
into  the  history  of  the  county  came  from  such  Massa- 
chusetts counties  as  Worcester,  Berkshire,  and  Suffolk ; 
from  Connecticut  counties,  —  Hartford,  Windham, — 
and  towns  like  Sherman,  Lebanon,  and  Fairfield ;  from 
Vermont,  —  Burlington,  Brookfield,  Huntington,  and 
Grand  Isle.  Noble  County  had  a  similar  heterogeneous 
collection  of  pioneers.  La  Porte  County  drew  its  early 

1  T.  B.  Helm  (ed.),  Hist  of  Cass  County,  493-^94,  629,  645-548. 

2  A.  W.  Young,  Wayne  County,  188-412.  There  is  a  sketch  of  a  New 
Englander  here  and  there. 

8  Hist,  of  Dearborn,  Ohio,  and  Switzerland  Counties,  149-160, 167-173, 
660-605,  1185-1237.  These  settlers  came  in  from  1814  to  1825. 

*  White,  Evansville,  14,  15,  37,  75,  76,  317-340.  Several  of  these  came 
in  "between  1850  and  1860. 

6  Counties  of  White  anc?  Pw^asH,  223-318.  Also  J.  H.  Nowland,  Sketches 
of  Prominent  Citizens  ^of  Indianapolis'],  152-292. 


202  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

settlers  from  Massachusetts  towns,  —  Granville,  Bos- 
ton, Bridgewater,  and  West  Bridgewater,  Andover, 
Nantucket  Island,  and  Hampshire  County ;  from  Con- 
necticut, —  Colchester,  Wethersfield,  Granby,  and  New 
Haven;  from  Maine,  —  Penobscot  County,  especially; 
from  New  Hampshire,  —  Bradford,  Amherst,  Goff stown ; 
from  Vermont,  —  Orange  and  Caledonia  counties,  the 
villages  of  Dorset,  Fairfax,  and  Albany. 

There  were  also  New  England  towns,  though  such 
compact  settlements  were  on  the  whole  rare  in  Indiana. 
In  Steuben  County  the  Vermont  settlement  at  Orland 
was  widely  known  as  a  centre  of  Whig  and  Free-Soil 
politicians.  Settled  in  1834,  after  John  Stocker  had 
gone  prospecting  for  his  own  and  his  neighbors'  fami- 
lies, and  had  chosen  this  county  because  of  the  rich  burr- 
oak  openings  he  found,  the  pioneers  from  Windham 
County,  Vermont,  organized  their  Baptist  church  the 
next  year,  and  before  long  had  laid  plans  for  the  "  Or- 
land Academy."^  The  "New  Hampshire  settlement" 
on  Lake  Prairie  in  Lake  County  was  such  a  compact 
town  which  dated  from  1855.  The  next  year  the  fami- 
lies living  there  established  a  church  and  a  school,  and 
the  town  of  LoweU  perpetuated  the  traditions  thus 
established  in  a  prairie  village.^ 

The  biographies  of  a  few  typical  pioneers  will  illus- 
trate the  transplanting  of  the  New  England  man  to 
Indiana.  Calvin  Fletcher  of  Ludlow,  Vermont,  state 
attorney,  later  state  senator,  was  appointed  by  the  leg- 
islature in  1834  to  help  organize  a  state  bank  and  to 

^  Hist,  of  Steuben  County,  314,  455-492. 

»  Rev.  T.  H.  Ball,  Lake  County,  Indiana,  183^  to  1872,  99. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  203 

act  as  sinking-fund  commissioner ;  he  was  always  inter- 
ested in  agricultural  societies,  was  an  anti-slavery  man 
"  on  principle/'  and  for  many  years  a  trustee  of  the 
Indianapolis  schools/  James  Whitcomb,  born  in  Wind- 
sor, Vermont,  was  taken  to  Ohio  as  a  boy,  and  lived 
there  until  he  moved  to  Bloomington,  Indiana,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-seven.  Made  governor  in  1843,  when  the 
state  was  loaded  down  with  a  debt  upon  which  not  even 
the  interest  had  been  paid  for  years,  he  had  at  the  end 
of  six  years  adjusted  the  outstanding  obligations  so  that 
the  state's  credit  was  restored.^  By  his  efforts  public  sen- 
timent in  favor  of  reformatory  and  benevolent  institu- 
tions was  created.  A  third  illustration  is  John  Comstock 
of  Greenwich,  Rhode  Island,  who  was  in  public  life  for 
many  years  after  his  arrival  in  1836,  and  was  one  of  those 
upon  whose  generosity  the  "  war  governor  "  of  Indiana 
relied  to  help  fill  a  treasury  depleted  by  a  divided  state.' 
An  incident  from  Lake  County  history  shows  the  New 
England  perseverance  in  gaining  what  the  people  of 
that  section  regarded  as  their  rights,  organizing  and 
combining  to  secure  and  preserve  them.  The  settlers  of 
Lake  County,  squatters  upon  unsold  lands,  were  waiting 
for  the  passage  by  Congress  of  a  preemption  law  which 
would  insure  them  their  homes.  John  Robinson,  a  native 
of  Connecticut,  called  a  meeting  at  his  house  on  the 
Fourth  of  July,  1836,  where  he  was  appointed  one  of 

1  W.  W.  Woollen,  Biog.  and  Hist.  Sketches  of  Early  Indiana,  464-466. 

2  Ihid.y  81-83.  He  did  this  by  securing  the  passage  of  the  Butler  Bill, 
whereby  one  half  the  debt  was  paid  through  the  transfer  of  the  Wabash 
and  Erie  Canal,  and  the  other  half  funded  by  the  issuance  of  bonds  bear- 
ing a  low  rate  of  interest. 

»  Hist,  of  Wabash  Cmnty,  286, 287. 


204      THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

a  committee  to  draft  a  constitution  for  a  "  Squatters' 
Union,"  and  was  made  one  of  a  board  of  three  arbitra- 
tors of  claims  under  this  constitution.  It  was  declared 
that  actual  settlers  ought  to  have  their  lands  at  $1.25 
per  acre,  and  not  be  deprived  of  them  or  compelled  to 
pay  a  higher  price  by  reason  of  speculation  ;  that  if 
Congress  did  not  protect  the  settlers,  they  would  them- 
selves take  "  such  measures  as  may  he  necessary  "  to 
secure  one  another  in  their  just  claims.  Therefore  a 
board  of  arbitrators  and  a  registrar  of  claims  was  pro- 
vided for,  each  township  in  the  county  to  have  such  an 
arrangement  if  it  so  desired.  Each  signer  was  to  use  his 
influence  to  get  his  friends  and  acquaintances  to  join  the 
settlement,  "  under  the  full  assurance  that  we  shall  now 
obtain  our  rights,  and  that  it  is  now  perfectly  as  safe  to 
go  on  improving  the  public  land  as  though  we  already 
had  our  titles  from  government."  ^ 

Upon  the  whole,  Indiana  has  been  influenced  more 
from  the  South  than  from  New  England.  Yet  the  free 
school  system  was  the  work  chiefly  of  a  teacher  in 
Wabash  College, — Professor  Caleb  Mills,  a  graduate  of 
Dartmouth  College.  In  1846  he  prepared  his  first  ad- 
dress to  the  state  legislature,  a  plea  for  a  public  school 
system  for  Indiana.  The  interest  which  it  aroused  from 
the  moment  a  copy  was  laid  upon  the  desk  of  every 
member  of  the  legislature  was  increased  by  an  address 
prepared  for  each  session  up  to  1851.  Another  paper 
was  placed  before  the  constitutional  convention  of  1850 
by  Professor  Mills,  signed,  as  the  others  had  been,  by 

*  Rev. T.  H.  Ball,  Lake  County,  41-48,  277.  Robinson  was  called  "The 
Squatter  King  of  Lake." 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  205 

^'  One  of  the  People."  The  state  legislature  had  five 
thousand  copies  of  one  of  the  addresses  printed  and 
distributed  throughout  the  state.  Finally  the  system 
was  established,  and  when  it  was  learned  that  Professor 
Mills  was  "  One  of  the  People/'  "  the  people  he  had  so 
well  served  were  quick  to  honor  him  by  an  unsought 
election  to  the  office  of  state  superintendent  of  public 
instruction."  ^ 

Professor  Mills's  efforts  were  not  confined  to  the  pub- 
lic schools.  He  was  the  first  head  of  Wabash  College, 
which  he  built  up  on  the  lines  of  Dartmouth  College  and 
of  Andover  Academy,  where  he  had  been  trained  as  a 
boy.  His  work  was  done  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  his 
classmate  from  Andover  and  from  Dartmouth,  —  E.  0. 
Hovey,  for  forty-four  years  a  trustee  of  Wabash  College.^ 

All  through  northern  Indiana  the  Congregational 
Church  has  its  representatives,  or  the  Presbyterian  Church 
to  which,  as  in  Ohio  and  New  York,  many  of  those  who 
had  been  Congregationalists  turned  because  of  its  larger 
organization.  The  first  Congregational  church  in  Ko- 
komo  was  founded  in  1863  by  the  members  of  a  New 
England  family.  Plymouth  church,  in  Indianapolis,  has 
always  had  a  large  membership  of  New  England  descent. 

It  was  to  an  early  settler  of  Dearborn  County,  who 

^  J.  M.  Butler,  in  Reunion  of  the  New  England  Society  of  Indianapolis 
in  1894,  38,  39.  See,  also,  Dr.  W.  A.  Rawles,  Centralizing  Tendencies  in 
the  Administration  of  Indiana,  Columbia  University,  "  Studies  in  History, 
Economics,  and  Public  Law,"  vol.  xvii,  no.  1;  also  Dr.  F.  T.  Carlton, 
Economic  Influences  upon  Educational  Progress  in  the  United  States,  1820 
to  1850,  in  the  "  Economics  and  Political  Science  Series,  Bulletins  of  the 
University  of  Wisconsin,"  vol.  iv,  no.  1.  For  Indiana  settlement  in  1820, 
1830,  and  1840,  see  maps  opposite  pages  206,  210,  and  236. 

*  Rev.  J.  F.  Tuttle,  in  Hist,  of  Montgomery  County,  156. 


206  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

•was  born  in  Mansfield,  Connecticut,  had  lived  in  Ver- 
mont, and  came  to  southeastern  Indiana  to  make  his 
home,  that  Indiana  owes  its  township  system.  About 
1822  this  pioneer  secured  its  adoption  as  a  system  local 
to  his  own  county ;  but  so  ingrained  had  its  advantages 
become  in  the  minds  of  Dearborn  County  people,  that 
nearly  thirty  years  later  a  member  of  the  state  legisla- 
ture from  that  very  county  introduced  the  bill  extend- 
ing the  system  (modified,  to  be  sure)  to  all  the  counties 
of  the  state/  As  one  might  expect,  however,  the  town- 
ship is  distinctly  subordinated  to  the  county,  —  more  so 
than  is  the  case  in  states  like  New  York  or  Ohio,  where 
Puritan  influence  was  stronger  than  in  Indiana. 

The  settlement  of  Illinois  presents  many  features  in 
common  with  that  of  its  neighbor,  Indiana.  Settlers  had 
worked  up  into  Illinois  from  the  South  before  1812,  as 
has  been  said;  in  1818,  when  the  territory  became  a 
state,  only  the  southern  half  had  as  yet  been  occupied, 
and  that  portion  wholly  by  representatives  of  Virginia, 
Kentucky,  and  the  Carolinas,  whose  influence  domi- 
nated the  territorial  stage.  Here  and  there  a  New  Eng- 
land family  might  be  found,  as  at  Collinsville  (Madison 
County),  opposite  St.  Louis,  where  the  three  Collins 
brothers,  from  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  established  them- 
selves in  1817.^  They  used  the  same  horse-power  for  a 
distillery  and  a  sawmill,  ran  a  cooper  shop,  a  blacksmith 
shop,  a  wagon  shop,  and  a  carpenter  shop,  besides  ware- 
houses both  in  Collinsville  and  at  St.  Louis.  They  were 
not  wholly  engrossed  in  money-getting,  however ;  they, 

*  Hist,  of  Dearborn,  Ohio,  and  Switzerland  Counties,  149, 150. 
^  See  map  opposite. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS 

with  their  neighbors,  built  in  1818  a  union  meeting- ^^ 
house,  which  was  used  for  the  public  school  during  the  ' 
week,  and  for  a  Sunday  school  after  church  service. 
When  the  father  of  these  men  came  in  1824,  he  made 
the  first  substantial  subscription  for  Illinois  College.* 
One  of  the  first  three  settlers  in  Quincy,  Adams  County, 
came  about  1823  from  Newfane,  Vermont,  by  way  of 
^*  Canada  and  the  Northern  lakes."  His  reason  for  emi- 
grating he  gives  in  his  diary :  "  [I  was]  impelled  by 
curiosity  and  a  desire  to  see  other  places  than  those  in 
the  vicinity  of  my  native  town."  ^ 

But  such  settlers  were  the  exception  in  the  early  days 
of  Illinois ;  Southerners  were  in  the  great  majority,  and 
in  1818  they  shaped  the  state  constitution  along  the 
lines  of  the  "  Old  Dominion  "  and  her  neighbors.^  The 
first  code  of  laws  was  a  Southern  code,  mainly  from  the 
statute  books  of  Kentucky  and  Virginia ;  and  every  one 
of  the  first  six  governors  was  a  Southern  man;  for 
twenty-five  years  the  senators  and  representatives  of  the 
new  state  were  almost  without  exception  men  born  south 
of  the  Ohio."*  It  was  later  that  the  fourteen  northern 
counties,  the  New  England  stronghold,  forced  the  town- 
ship system  upon  the  rest  of  the  state.^    The  hostility 

1  J.  T.  Hair,  Gazetteer  of  Madison  County,  145,  146. 

2  Asbury,  Reminiscences,  25,  26. 

8  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  Local  Government  in  Illinois,  9. 

*  H.  L.  Boies,  Hist,  of  DeKalh  County,  46  ;  Greene,  Government  of  Illi' 
nois,  36. 

5  E.  B.  Greene,  "  Sectional  Forces  in  the  History  of  Illinois,"  in  Trans, 
of  III.  Hist.  Soc.  for  1903,  p.  80.  Dr.  W.  V.  Pooley  has  prepared  an  admir- 
able study  on  The  Settlement  of  Illinois  from  1830  to  1850,  vol.  i,  no.  4  of 
the  "  History  Series,  Bulletins  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  "  (May, 
1908)*  It  contains  some  accurate  and  suggestive  maps. 


208  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

between  the  pioneers  from  the  South  and  their  rivals  in 
state-building  who  came  in  by  way  of  northern  Indiana 
dated  back,  however,  to  the  territorial  days,  when  New 
England  was  for  the  most  part  represented  by  tricky 
itinerant  clock-peddlers.  The  Southerners  conceived  the 
idea  that  a  genuine  ''  Yankee  "  was  miserly,  shrewd  to 
the  point  of  dishonesty,  and  absolutely  lacking  in  kind- 
liness or  hospitality  towards  his  neighbors ;  they  retained 
this  belief  long  after  the  peddler  had  departed  and  the 
substantial  Puritan  farmer  had  taken  up  an  abode  in  a 
state  where  he  meant  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  days.  The 
New  Englanders,  on  their  side,  misunderstood  their 
Southern  neighbors,  and  confused  them  all  with  the 
*^poor  whites"  who  had  contented  themselves  with  the 
squatter's  log  cabin.  Many  of  the  Southerners,  it  is  true, 
were  poor;  they  had  been  unable  to  hold  slaves  in  the 
South  by  reason  of  their  poverty,  and  had  come  into 
the  Northwest  Territory  not  only  to  better  their  condi- 
tion, but  also  to  avoid  a  system  of  which  they  did  not 
disapprove  on  principle,  but  had  found  unpleasant  on 
account  of  the  social  distinctions  it  produced.  Others  had 
turned  their  faces  Illinois- ward,  even  after  the  passage 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise ;  but  that  measure  diverted 
Southern  emigration  very  markedly  to  the  lands  across 
the  Missouri,  leaving  northern  Illinois  for  the  New 
Yorkers  and  New  Englanders.  Most  of  these  later  emi- 
grants were  wealthy  farmers,  enterprising  merchants, 
millers,  and  manufacturers,  who  built  mills,  churches, 
schoolhouses,  cities,  and  made  roads  and  bridges  with 
astonishing  public  spirit ;  so  that  the  southern  part  of 
the  state,  though  it  was  many  years  older  in  point  of 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  209 

settlement,  was  noticeably  behind  in  point  of  wealth 
and  evidences  of  public  spirit  and  prosperity/  A  strong 
sectional  antagonism  sprang  up,  due  to  the  entire  mis- 
understanding existing  between  the  northern  and  the 
southern  portions  of  the  state.  Southerners  opposed  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  because  of  the  fear  that  if 
completed  it  would  ^^ flood  the  state  with  Yankees";^ 
the  Northerners  resented  the  attempt  to  force  them  to 
help  pay  a  heavy  state  debt  which  had  been  recklessly 
incurred  before  their  arrival.^ 

This  mutual  lack  of  comprehension  and  consequent 
violent  sectional  antagonism  came  to  a  climax  in  1840. 
In  that  year  a  mass-meeting  was  held  at  Rockf ord  in 
Winnebago  County  (on  the  northern  boundary),  where 
one  hundred  and  twenty  delegates  met,  every  one  of 
whom  had  come  from  the  counties  lying  north  of  a  line 
drawn  from  the  southern  bend  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the 
Mississippi  River.  This  region  had  been  added  to  Illinois 
in  1818,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  Nathaniel  Pope ; 
the  settlers  felt  themselves  much  more  closely  allied  in 
their  interests  with  Wisconsin,  which  contained  a  popu- 

^  Hist,  of  Madison  County  (Illinois),  91  ;  also  ex-Gov.  Thos.  Ford,  Illi- 
nois,  280,  281.  Ford  says  :  "  The  southerner  is  perhaps  the  most  hospit- 
able and  generous  to  individuals.  He  is  lavish  of  his  victuals,  his  liquors, 
and  other  personal  favors.  But  the  northern  man  is  the  most  liberal  in 
contributing  to  whatever  is  for  the  public  benefit.  Is  a  schoolhouse,  a 
bridge,  or  a  church  to  be  built,  a  road  to  be  made,  a  school  or  minister  to 
be  maintained,  or  taxes  to  be  paid  for  the  honor  or  support  of  govern- 
ment, the  northern  man  is  never  found  wanting."  See,  also,  Shaw,  Local 
Government  in  Illinois,  11.  Also  C.  A.  Church,  Hist,  of  Rockford,  160  £P. 

2  Ford,  Illinois,  281.  This  was  said  in  a  speech  by  Lieutenant-Governor 
Kinney  before  the  state  Senate;  he  said  that  the  Yankees  spread  every- 
where, and  that  he  was  looking  daily  for  them  to  overrun  the  state. 

»  Church,  Hist,  of  Rockf ordy  161. 


210  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

lation  made  up  almost  entirely  of  New  Yorkers  and 
New  Englanders,  as  did  this  northern  quarter  of  Illinois. 
Among  these  delegates  of  1840  were  several  from  Ver- 
mont, Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut ;  a  Putney,  Ver- 
mont, man  was  made  chairman/  A  set  of  resolutions 
was  drawn  up,  stating  that  since  it  was  the  general  be- 
lief of  the  residents  of  the  disputed  tract  that  it  ought 
to  be  a  part  of  Wisconsin,  therefore  a  committee  should 
be  appointed  to  inform  the  governor  of  Wisconsin  of 
the  result  of  the  meeting.  Other  boundary  conventions 
were  held  in  different  parts  of  the  district  within  the 
next  eighteen  months,  and  similar  resolutions  adopted. 
In  August,  1842,  the  Commissioners'  Court  of  Winne- 
bago County  having  submitted  the  matter  to  popular 
vote,  the  returns  gave  976  for  annexation  to  Wisconsin, 
and  6  against  it.  Yet  the  movement  lost  its  momen- 
tum and  the  plan  came  to  nothing.^  Nevertheless,  the 
episode  is  most  significant  of  the  strong  sectional  antag- 
onism, and  the  length  to  which  the  Northern  pioneers 
were  willing  to  go  rather  than  be  dominated  by  an  ele- 
ment foreign  in  aims  and  interests  to  their  own. 

The  New  Englanders  who  led  this  movement  for 
secession  to  Wisconsin  had  practically  all  come  into  Illi- 
nois since  1830,^  but  the  number  of  emigrants  before 
that  time  was  only  the  smallest  fraction  in  comparison 
with  the  host  who  came  during  the  six  or  seven  years 
preceding  the  panic  of  1837,  when  immigration  was 
again  for  a  time  retarded.  The  close  of  the  Black  Hawk 

1  Hist.  ofRockfordy  162.  '  Ihid.y  163,  164. 

'  See  maps  in  chapter  ix  for  1840  and  1850,  and  frontispiece  for  1860. 
See  map  opposite. 


90  Longitude        West 


from        Greenwich 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  211 

War  of  1832  saw  a  marked  increase  in  the  number  of 
settlers  to  the  northern  counties,  especially,  partly  be- 
cause danger  from  savages  no  longer  confronted  the 
pioneer,  and  partly  because  of  the  increased  knowledge 
of  the  fertile  lands  through  which  the  volunteers  had 
passed.  Not  only  did  many  of  the  soldiers  move  here 
themselves,  but  they  invited  their  old  neighbors  and 
friends  to  join  them/  Moreover,  writers  like  Peck  were 
getting  out  their  gazetteers  for  those  who  contemplated 
emigration  from  the  older  states,  and  the  prospects  for 
future  wealth  were  most  alluring. 

In  studying  the  movement  of  the  tide  of  immigration 
which  poured  in  from  the  East  after  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  again  and  again  are  we  impressed  with  the  con- 
servatism of  it,  —  the  recurrence  of  methods  which  had 
marked  the  expansion  of  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut 
two  centuries  before.  Illinois  was  settled  by  many  New 
England  colonies,  such  as  those  with  whose  type  and 
organization  we  are  already  familiar.  A  company  from 
Gilmanto.n,  New  Hampshire,  settled  Hanover  (now  called 
Metamora)  in  1835,  after  the  prospecting  tour  of  their 
townsman,  John  Page,  who  had  picked  out  the  tract  as 
being  peculiarly  attractive  for  farms.  Others  from  Rhode 
Island,  Vermont,  and  Massachusetts  joined  the  settle- 
ment later.^  A  number  of  settlers  from  Pittsfield,  Massa- 
chusetts, joined  forces  to  begin  Pittsfield,  Illinois,  though 
here  the  movement  was  simply  a  neighborhood  affair, 
and  not  that  of  an  organized  colony.^   Tremont,  in 

*  Hist,  of  Stephenson  County,  225.  See  map  opposite  page  236. 
2  Past  and  Present  of  Woodford  County,  274-512. 
'  Five  brothers  and  a  few  other  families  came  in  1820.  Hist,  of  Pike 
County,  650-690. 


212  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Tazewell  County,  was  laid  out  around  a  public  square, 
the  character  of  the  buildings  and  the  whole  tone  of  the 
village  being  in  1838  remarkably  like  that  of  a  New 
England  town.*  The  Wethersfield  colony  was  settled 
by  a  company  formed  of  men  from  Maine  to  New  York, 
but  its  impetus  came  from  the  pastor  of  the  Wethers- 
field, Connecticut,  Congregational  Church.  Each  $250- 
share  entitled  its  holder  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  prairie  land,  twenty  acres  of  timber,  and  a  town  lot. 
A  committee  of  three  set  out  in  1836,  after  $25,000  had 
been  paid  in,  and  purchased  one  hundred  quarter-sections. 
The  town  was  laid  out  with  wide  streets,  one  block  was 
set  apart  for  a  public  square,  and  one  for  academy  and 
college  purposes.  Though  only  four  of  the  sixty  original 
members  of  the  association  ever  came  to  live  in  the  town, 
it  was  filled  up  by  New  Englanders,  a  Congregational 
church  was  organized  in  1839  with  fifteen  members, 
and  the  town  of  Kewanee  perpetuates  the  New  Eng- 
land pioneers.^ 

A  church  colony  from  Benson,  Vermont,  moved  as  a 
whole  to  DuPage  County ;  later,  with  other  New  Eng- 
land settlers,  they  formed  a  "Squatters'  Union"  to  pro- 
tect their  rights,  with  separate  subordinate  organizations 
in  each  township.^  The  "Stonington  Colony"  moved  to 
Stonington,  Illinois,  in  1837 ;  *  sl  Rhode  Island  company 
about  to  migrate  in  1832  was  deterred  by  reports  of 

1  A.  D.  Joneg,  Illinois  and  the  West,  72,  73.  The  village  tavern  was 
kept  in  1838  by  an  ex-shipmaster  from  Duxbury,  Mass.  Ibid.,  71. 

2  Hist,  of  Henry  County,  137-145.  The  streets  of  the  town  are  named 
Dwight,  Edwards,  Tenney,  Payson,  HoUis,  etc. 

»  C.  W.  Richmond  and  H.  F.  Vallette,  DuPage  County,  46-52. 
*  Portrait  and  Biographical  Record  of  Christian  County,  336. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  213 

Indian  massacres,  so  that  only  one  family  actually  made 
the  journey/  The  Mt.  Hope  colony,  however,  was  a  suc- 
cess. The  scheme  originated  in  Rhode  Island  in  1835, 
and  had  for  its  object  the  opening  up  of  Western  lands 
and  the  providing  of  homes  for  farmers,  mechanics,  and 
tradesmen.  A  constitution  and  by-laws  were  drawn  up, 
and  a  committee  of  four  sent  out  to  locate  land  for 
the  "  Providence  Farmers'  and  Mechanics'  Emigrating 
Society,"  as  the  association  was  called.  About  fifteen 
families  had  already  moved  to  Illinois,  when  the  panic 
of  1837  broke  up  the  plan.  School  and  church  were 
organized  by  friends  in  the  East,  but  the  settlement 
remained  small.^  A  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  colony 
was  a  near  neighbor  of  a  Norwich,  Connecticut,  one  in 
La  Salle  County ;  ^  while  a  Hampshire  colony,  with  its 
church  organized  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  and 
its  own  academy,  came  to  Bureau  County,  and  planted 
a  town  near  one  begun  by  an  association  from  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island.^  A  Rhode  Island  colony  settled 
Delavan,  in  Tazewell  County.^ 

The  Maine  colony  which  settled  at  Rockton,  Winne- 
bago County,  sent  Ira  Hersey  in  1837  as  their  repre- 
sentative to  visit  Illinois  and  select  a  good  tract  of  land. 
He  was  greatly  impressed  with  the  possibilities  of  the 
West,  and  on  his  return  fired  his  neighbors  with  an 

1  W.  H.  Perrin  (ed.),  Cass  County,  124. 

2  Hist,  of  McLean  County ,  679.  The  land  was  held  in  trust  till  1854, 
when  a  number  of  men  from  Bloomington  bought  what  was  left. 

3  E.  Baldwin,  Hist,  of  La  Salle  County,  374,  375. 

*  H.  C.  Bradsby  (ed.),  Hist,  of  Bureau  County,  126,  181. 
s  An  article  signed  "  New  York  Observer,"  in  The  New  Yorker^  Aug. 
31, 1839,  page  572. 


214  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

especial  enthusiasm  for  the  beautiful  Rock  River  valley. 
The  colony  was  formed,  and  with  Mr.  Hersey  as  their 
leader,  they  departed.  They  went  from  Portland  to  Bos- 
ton ;  then  to  Providence  by  rail ;  by  water  to  New  York 
and  Philadelphia ;  again  by  rail  across  Pennsylvania  to 
Pittsburg,  where  they  took  passage  down  the  Ohio  River. 
In  Cincinnati  they  purchased  provisions  and  wagons, 
and  continuing  their  way  passed  up  the  Mississippi,  and 
up  the  Illinois  as  far  as  Ottawa,  where  they  bought  oxen 
and  cows.  Then  they  finished  their  journey  overland 
to  their  new  home.^  In  the  same  year  was  formed  their 
Congregational  church.  There  were  at  least  twenty-two 
colonies  in  Illinois,  all  of  which  had  their  origin  in  New 
England  or  in  New  York,  most  of  them  planted  between 
1830  and  1840.^ 

"^  One  characteristic  feature  has  seemed  noteworthy  to 
the  writers  on  this  period  of  Illinois  settlement,  —  the 
poorest  land  was  chosen  for  locations.  With  the  con- 

1  Carr,  History  of  Rockton,  39,  40.  See  map  opposite  page  236. 

'  Some  colonies  which  appear  as  Southern  colonies  were  perhaps  New 
England  ones.  In  the  winter  of  1905-06  there  appeared  in  the  Boston 
Transcript  an  item  asking  for  certain  information  hinted  at  in  some  old 
family  papers,  showing  that  a  New  England  colony  early  in  the  1800' s 
had  emigrated  from  Charlemont,  Massachusetts,  to  what  is  now  West 
Virginia,  and  from  there  to  Edwards  County,  Illinois  ;  some  New  Yorkers 
had  been  in  the  colony  also.  Yet  Edwards  County  is  always  counted  a 
region  settled  by  Southerners.  Another  instance  of  the  same  sort  is  in  the 
settlement  of  Sangamon  County  ;  within  a  few  years  previous  to  1857, 
sixty  or  seventy  families  had  removed  from  Cape  May  County,  New 
Jersey,  to  Sangamon  County,  Illinois.  These  would  be  reckoned  as  New 
Jersey  settlers;  Cape  May  County  has,  however,  always  retained  much 
of  its  New  England  character.  Its  first  settlers  were  from  New  Haven 
and  Long  Island,  the  names  in  all  three  places  being  much  alike,  and  there 
are  Carmans  in  all.  See  C.  T.  Stevens,  Hist,  of  Cape  May  County  [New 
Jersey],  29-59,  280. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  215 

servatism  Inherent  in  the  Anglo-Saxon^  the  settlers  chose 
land  like  that  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  at 
home.  The  prairies,  with  their  boundless  sweep,  were 
unknown  factors ;  hence  the  pioneers  doubted  the  prac- 
ticability of  cultivating  them  to  advantage.  The  first 
log  cabins  were  built  close  to  woods  and  streams,  the 
prairies  being  used  simply  as  ranges  for  cattle  and  sheep, 
and  he  was  a  visionary  and  a  foolish  enthusiast  who 
dared  to  state  that  the  prairies  would  ere  long  be  set- 
tled as  thickly  as  the  timbered  stretches.*  But  as  land  be- 
came scarcer,  the  newcomers  were  forced  to  buy  prairie- 
land,  and  found  ready  to  their  hand  the  richest  soil  of  all. 
Although  the  fourteen  northern  counties,  with  their 
attractive  combination  of  wooded  river-banks  and  roll- 
ing prairie,  were  settled  solidly  by  emigrants  from  the 
states  east  of  the  Hudson  River  or  from  New  York  itself, 
yet  many  other  counties  had  numerous  representatives 
of  New  England  within  their  borders.  Nearly  every 
county  above  Springfield  drew  a  large  proportion  of 
settlers  from  the  East,  while  to  the  south  there  were  very 
few,  though  a  stray  Connecticut  or  Massachusetts  pio- 
neer might  be  found  here  and  there.'  In  Henry  County 
alone  there  were  five  New  England  colonies :  Andover, 

1  H.  L.  Boies,  Hist,  of  DeKalh  County,  35. 

2  One  of  the  founders  of  Cairo  was  born  in  Hartford,  Connecticut ;  he 
had  lived  in  Kaskaskia  from  1832  until  1843,  when  he  removed  to  Cairo. 
See  W.  H.  Perrin  (ed.),  Hist,  of  Alexander,  Union,  and  Pulaski  Counties,  33. 
Pittsfield,  Pike  County,  Illinois,  is  named  for  the  old  Massachusetts 
home  of  its  first  settlers.  See  Hist,  of  Pike  County,  650.  The  statement 
made  above  is  based  upon  a  detailed  study  of  the  early  emigrants  in  all 
these  counties,  as  contained  in  about  thirty  county  histories  ;  the  results 
are  set  forth  in  the  maps  of  Illinois  and  the  rest  of  the  old  Northwest 
Territory,  for  1830,  1840,  1850,  and  1860. 


216  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Wethersfield,  Geneseo,  Morristown,  and  La  Grange,  all 
of  which  had  educational  projects  in  mind.* 

With  the  map  of  New  England  settlement  in  Illi- 
nois in  mind,  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  location 
of  Congregational  churches.  Yet  not  until  the  decade 
1830-40,  when  immigration  was  filling  up  the  northern 
counties  most  rapidly,  when  five  hundred  towns  were 
laid  out  in  two  years,  did  Congregationalism  secure  any 
other  foothold  than  that  of  a  precarious  missionary  en- 
terprise.^ Illinois  College,  itself  a  child  of  Yale,^  was  a 

^  The  first  three  were  also  strongly  imbued  with  a  missionary  spirit. 
Hist,  of  Henry  County,  117.  S.  DeW.  Drown,  in  his  Record  and  Hist. 
View  of  Peoria,  117,  gives  the  place  of  nativity  of  the  voters  of  that  city 
in  1845.  Of  642  listed,  107  were  from  New  England,  111  from  New  York. 
The  distribution  in  New  England  is  as  follows  :  — 

Massachusetts 52 

New  Hampshire 23 

Vermont 15 

Connecticut 12 

Maine 3 

Khode  Island 2 

Chicago  was  from  the  beginning  a  favorite  goal  for  New  Englanders, 
and  its  largest  banking  and  mercantile  houses  are  the  work  of  Connecti- 
cut and  Massachusetts  men  like  Marshall  Field.  The  first  president  of  the 
great  First  National  Bank  was  born  in  Norfolk,  Connecticut,  but  had 
spent  his  boyhood  in  New  York.  The  early  directors  came  from  the  fol- 
lowing towns  :  Hanson,  Danvers,  and  Groton,  Massachusetts  ;  Sharon, 
Connecticut  ;  Winchester,  Gilsum,  and  Newport,  New  Hampshire ; 
Rutland  and  Swauton  Falls,  Vermont  ;  Machias,  Maine.  See  H.  C.  Morris, 
First  National  Bank  of  Chicago,  133-168.  The  first  three  pastors  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Chicago  came  from  Hadley,  Massachusetts  ; 
Lebanon,  Connecticut  ;  and  Bridgeport,  Connecticut.  Many  professional 
men  —  lawyers  and  doctors  ■—  were  from  New  England.  A.  T.  Andreas, 
Hist,  of  Cook  County,  243-290. 

'  J.  M.  Peck,  Gazetteer  of  Illinois^  109 ;  J.  Moses,  Illinois  Historical 
and  Statistical,  ii,  1705. 

3  Peck,  Gazetteer  of  Illinois^  83,  84. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  217 

leader  in  the  movement  to  establish  churches,  of  which 
four  were  founded  in  1833,  five  in  1834,  one  in  1835, 
ten  in  1836,  and  by  1840  forty-eight  had  made  more  or 
less  feeble  beginnings.  There  were  recorded  in  1840 
sixty  ministers,  and  1500  church  members ;  in  1870, 
when  the  churches  numbered  244,  the  membership  was 
17,689/ 

With  the  coming  of  the  Eastern  pioneers,  there  came 
a  change  in  the  character  of  the  ruling  powers  in  the 
state  ;  whereas  in  1818  the  Southerners  had  been  in  con- 
trol and  had  maintained  their  supremacy  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  thereafter,  nevertheless  gradually  Northern 
men  became  dominant  in  the  legislature,  and  Puritan 
traditions  began  to  manifest  themselves  here  and  there 
upon  the  statute-book.  The  Southerners  did  not  yield 
without  many  skirmishes  to  save  their  supremacy.  In 
the  constitutional  convention  of  1847  the  struggle  cul- 
minated, but  it  ceased  almost  entirely  after  the  amended 
constitution  was  adopted  the  next  year ;  for  there  the  ques- 
tion of  local  government  was  adjusted  by  a  compromise. 
The  contention  had  been  over  the  acceptance  of  the 
county  system  prevalent  in  the  central  and  southern 
parts  of  the  state,  or  the  township  system  which  the 
northern  counties  had  adopted.  By  the  new  constitu- 
tion, each  county  was  to  decide  its  own  form  of  local 
government  by  popular  vote ;  the  northern  counties 
adopted  the  township  system,  the  southern  counties  re- 
tained their  old  organization.  Within  the  next  ten  years, 
however,  a  large  number  of  the  central  counties  followed 
the  example  of  their  neighbors  on  the  north,  probably 
1  Moses,  III.  Hist,  and  Stat.f  ii,  1075. 


218  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

owing  largely  to  the  greatly  increased  immigration  into 
that  part  of  the  state  from  New  York  and  New  Eng- 
land/ 

Until  the  Civil  War,  Illinois  continued  to  receive  a 
large  quota  of  immigrants  from  the  East.  The  lines 
of  development  had  been  largely  marked  out  by  1840 ; 
here  and  there,  however,  Puritan  tradition  changed 
their  course,  as  it  had  already  in  the  case  of  the  town- 
ship system.  For  example,  a  little  later  came  the  triumph 
of  the  struggle  for  free  schools,  the  bill  to  introduce 
this  system  being  fathered  by  a  Massachusetts  man  who 
had  lived  in  Kentucky  and  Mississippi,  but  had  brought 
his  educational  ideas  unchanged  through  his  pioneering, 
to  Illinois.^  At  Evanston,  the  "  Biblical  Institute  "  was 
modeled  in  1855  after  the  theological  seminary  at  New- 
bury, Vermont ;  and  the  Bowdoinham,  Maine,  pioneer 
who  laid  out  the  town  was  instrumental  in  founding 
Northwestern  University.^  Southern  Illinois  is  to-day 
very  like  Kentucky ;  northern  Illinois  is  to-day  a  new 
home  of  Congregationalism,  public  schools,  and  the 
township  system,  transplanted  to  the  West  by  descend-. 

1  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  Local  Government  in  Illinois^  11. 

2  Hist,  of  Shelby  and  Moultrie  Counties,  159. 

3  F.  E.  Willard,  Classical  Town  (Evanston),  25-44.  Rockford  College 
for  Women  was  begun  as  a  seminary  in  1851  by  men  and  women  of  New 
England  stock.  See  Church,  Hist,  of  Rockfordy  107,  288-290.  The  first  en- 
dowment gift  to  Shurtleff  College,  Alton,  was  from  Benjamin  Shurtleff, 
of  Boston.  See  Jones,  Illinois  and  the  West,  119.  The  Female  Seminary  at 
Monticello  was  begun  by  a  native  of  Chatham,  Massachusetts.  See  Hair, 
Gazetteer  of  Madison  County,  151.  Almira  College,  Greenville,  was  founded 
by  two  men  educated  at  New  Hampton,  New  Hampshire,  and  Brown 
University,  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  See  Hist,  of  Bond  and  Montgomery 
Counties,  109,  110. 


INDIANA  AND  ILLINOIS  219 

ants  of  the  Puritans.  The  two  sections  of  the  state,  each 
contributing  its  quota  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole,  have 
produced  a  new  commonwealth  which  is  neither  South- 
ern nor  Puritan ;  —  it  is  Illinois,  a  part  of  the  great 
"  Middle  West." 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

As  in  the  earlier  maps,  the  maps  illustrating  this  chapter  are  prepared 
from  a  great  amount  of  detail  gathered  from  many  sources  not  enumer- 
ated in  the  footnotes,  nor  cited  in  these  notes.  Fifty-six  county  and  local 
histories  were  used  for  the  Illinois  maps,  besides  the  ones  specifically 
cited.  The  material  for  this  chapter  and  the  next  was  collected  almost 
exclusively  in  the  library  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin. 

For  Indiana,  the  county  histories  prepared  by  unknown  persons  to  be 
sold  by  subscription  are  often  poor,  and  badly  put  together  ;  but  they 
contain  biographies  of  many  inhabitants  of  the  locality,  and  from  the 
statistics  so  obtained  one  may  draw  safe  conclusions.  Rev.  T.  H.  Ball, 
Lake  County y  Indiana^  1834  to  1872  (Chicago,  1873),  stands  in  a  class  by 
itself,  for  it  is  excellent.  Thomas  B.  Helm's  History  of  Cass  County, 
Indiana  (Chicago,  1878),  and  Goodspeed  and  Blanchard's  Counties  of 
Porter  and  Lake  (Chicago,  1882),  as  well  as  their  Counties  of  Whitley  and 
Noble  (Chicago,  1882)  are  fairly  good,  as  are  H.  W.  Beckwith's  History 
of  Fountain  County  {History  of  Montgomery  County  is  bound  in  the  same 
volume),  and  his  History  of  Vigo  and  Parke  Counties.  In  Levi  Coffin's 
Reminiscences  (Cincinnati,  1876)  is  given  much  suggestive  material  on 
the  Quaker  settlements  in  Wayne  and  Randolph  counties,  and  their  emi- 
gration from  North  Carolina.  J.  H.  Wheeler  in  his  Historical  Sketches  of 
North  Carolina,  1584  to  1851  (2  vols,  in  1,  Philadelphia,  1851),  gives 
similar  information.  Rev.  Dr.  F.  C.  HoUiday's  Indiana  Methodism  (Cin- 
cinnati, 1873)  is  suggestive  and  valuable.  John  H.  B.  Nowland  has  a 
volume  of  Sketches  of  Prominent  Citizens  of  1876,  on  Indianapolis  people. 
W.  W.  Woollen  prepared  the  Biographical  and  Historical  Sketches  of 
Early  Indiana  (Indianapolis,  1883),  and  with  D.  W.  Howe  and  J.  P. 
Dunn  edited  the  Executive  Journal  of  Indiana  Territory,  1800-16,  which 
is  in  the  Indiana  Historical  Society  Publications,  vol.  iii.  These  form  the 
best  sources  for  the  history  of  Indiana  before  it  passed  out  of  the  terri- 
torial stage.  Almost  all  of  these  last-named  works  on  Indiana  history 
were  from  the  Howe  Collection  in  the  Public  Library  of  Indianapolis. 


220  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

For  Illinois,  there  are  some  excellent  county  histories,  —  A.  T.  Andreas, 
History  of  Cook  County  (Chicago,  1884)  ;  H.  L.  Boies,  History  of  DeKalb 
County  (Chicago,  1868)  ;  C.  A.  Church,  History  of  Rockford  and  Winne- 
bago County  (Rockford,  1900)  ;  James  T.  Hair  (compiler),  Gazetteer  of 
Madison  County  (Alton,  1866).  Thomas  Ford,  at  one  time  governor  of 
Illinois,  wrote  the  best  account  of  his  state  from  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  it,  — ^  History  of  Illinois,  1818-1847  (Chicago  and  New  York,  1854). 
Professor  E.  B.  Greene's  The  Government  of  Illinois  (in  Handbooks  of 
Amer.  Govt.  Series,  New  York,  1904)  is  very  suggestive  on  the  influences 
which  went  to  the  making  of  Illinois  ;  while  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  in  his 
Local  Government  in  Illinois  (J.  H.  U.  Studies  in  History  and  Political 
Science)  has  done  an  admirable  piece  of  work  under  a  famous  teacher. 
John  Moses,  Illinois:  Historical  and  Statistical  (2  vols.,  Chicago,  1892); 
J.  M.  Peck,  Gazetteer  of  Illinois  (Jacksonville,  1834)  ;  A.  D.  Jones, 
Illinois  and  the  West  (Boston  and  Philadelphia,  1838)  ;  S.  DeW.  Drown, 
Record  and  Historical  View  of  Peoria  (Peoria,  1850)  ;  —  all  these  have 
done  good  work  in  gathering  information  relative  to  Illinois  in  its  early 
days.  A  good  example  of  the  value  which  a  history  of  a  local  institution 
has,  is  afforded  by  H.  C.  Morris's  History  of  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Chicago  (Chicago,  1902).  Miss  F.  E.  Willard  has  given  valuable  infor- 
mation in  A  Classic  Town.  (Evanston,  Illinois.  Published  in  Chicago, 
1891.) 

Newspapers  of  the  decades  1820-60,  such  as  The  New  Yorker,  have 
letters  and  notices  sometimes  which  mention  Western  emigration. 

The  admirable  studies  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin  and  the  Columbia 
University  Series  have  been  referred  to  in  the  footnotes  on  pages  205 
and  207. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   NEW   ENGLANDERS   AS  STATE   BUILDERS: 
MICHIGAN  AND  WISCONSIN,  1820-1860 

The  preceding  chapters  have  shown  phases  of  the 
westward  movement  of  population  out  from  the  Hudson 
River,  as  well  as  north  of  the  Ohio,  during  the  first 
half-century  after  1800.  The  rapid  growth  of  western 
New  York,  the  filling  in  of  Pennsylvania,  the  early 
settlements  in  Ohio  have  been  traced,  one  after  the 
other ;  the  growing  density  of  population  in  Indiana, 
then  in  Illinois,  has  been  shown.  One  other  region  was 
being  peopled  during  the  second  quarter  of  the  century, 
along  the  same  lines, — the  territory  now  called  Mich- 
igan and  "Wisconsin. 

Until  some  years  after  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812, 
Michigan  offered  little  attraction  to  the  emigrant  bound 
for  the  West.  Ohio  lands  were  still  cheap  and  plentiful, 
and  nearer  to  the  markets  which  the  East  and  the  South 
afforded ;  western  New  York  was  still  very  tempting, 
with  its  fertile  lands  not  yet  too  dear  for  a  farmer's 
purse,  and  there  was  therefore  no  need  to  pierce  the 
wilderness  which  lay  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  upper 
counties  of  Ohio.^  Moreover,  Michigan  was  scarcely 
known  at  all,  save  as  a  rendezvous  for  Indians;  the 
lands  had  not  yet  been  brought  into  the  market,  and 

*  See  map  for  1810,  facing  page  182  ;  and  for  1820,  facing  page  206. 


222  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  man  who  determined  to  make  a  home  in  such  a 
region  must  run  the  risk  of  being  a  dispossessed  "  squat- 
ter," reaping  no  reward  for  years  of  pioneering,  with 
its  attendant  dangers,  toil,  and  hardships.  Tecumseh 
and  his  Indian  warriors  had  terrorized  the  settlers  of 
Indiana  and  Ohio  until  after  1815 ;  even  then  the 
agents  who  were  sent  out  to  select  tracts  where  the  gov- 
ernment proposed  to  locate  the  bounty-lands  for  the 
soldiers  of  the  late  war  brought  back  very  unfavorable 
reports  of  the  prospects  which  Michigan  offered.  Lastly, 
there  was  an  entire  absence  of  roads,  and  Indian  trails 
leading  off  into  deep  woods  afforded  the  only  passage 
to  the  interior.  According  to  the  census  of  1800,  Mich- 
igan had  3206  inhabitants,  excluding  Indians ;  in  1805 
its  white  population  was  still  confined  to  the  settlements 
of  Detroit,  Frenchtown,  Mackinaw,  and  the  vicinity  of 
the  Detroit  Kiver.  Five  years  later,  the  census  gave  an 
increase  of  only  1500 ;  Detroit  was  a  village  with  1650 
inhabitants  ; '  there  was  not  a  single  farm  or  village  in 
any  direction  five  miles  from  the  territorial  boundaries. 
The  map  for  1820  shows  no  further  extension  of  the 
frontier  line,  though  the  population  of  the  district  about 
Detroit  had  grown  more  dense.^  But  the  next  decade 
saw  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal  and  the  rise  of 
steamboat  navigation  to  the  West;  to  these  factors 
may  be  traced  the  beginning  of  growth  for  both  Mich- 
igan and  Wisconsin.  Furthermore,  the  same  two  factors 
determined  to  a  large  extent  the  character  and  the 
future  institutions  of  those  states,  since  by  way  of  the 

1  J.  V.  Campbell,  Polit.  Hist.  ofMich.y  234. 
'  See  map  facing  page  206. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       223 

canal  and  the  steamboat  New  Englanders  and  trans- 
planted New  Englanders  from  New  York  made  their 
way  to  these  portions  of  "  the  West."  Into  the  building 
of  these  two  commonwealths  have  thus  been  wrought 
the  traditions  and  ideals  of  Puritan  origin. 

A  word  as  to  the  earliest  laws  in  this  part  of  the 
country  will  be  significant.  When  Michigan  was  first 
erected  into  a  territory  it  included  Wisconsin  within  its 
bounds ;  in  1805  one  fourth  of  the  territorial  laws  were 
taken  from  the  Virginia  statute-books,  with  the  remain- 
der from  Ohio,  Massachusetts,  and  New  York  in  about 
equal  proportions.^  In  1815,  however,  an  act  reincor- 
porating Detroit  provided  that  the  electors  might  in 
town-meeting  levy  taxes  for  such  purposes  as  they  saw 
fit.^  The  year  that  lands  were  put  on  sale  (1818),  an  act 
provided  that  for  certain  offenses  the  culprit  should  be 
whipped  at  the  whipping-post,  —  a  punishment  which 
was  taken  from  the  laws  of  Vermont.^  These  laws  show 
successive  stages  in  the  settlement  of  the  territory;  by 
1818  a  few  New  Englanders  were  straggling  in,  and 
their  influence  was  beginning  to  make  itself  felt  in  the 
statute  books,  as  it  was  to  do  later  in  the  institutions  of 
the  new  state. 

The  character  of  the  Michigan  settlers  was  very  largely 

*  E.  W.  Bemis,  Local  Government  in  Michigan  and  the  Northwest  (in  "  J. 
H.  Univ.  Studies,"  v.  i,  no.  6),  p.  10.  The  Ohio  laws  were  partly  Virgin- 
ian and  Pennsylvanian,  at  this  period.  Professor  Salmon  has  called  the 
author's  attention  to  the  fact  that  Judge  Woodward  of  Detroit,  whose 
influence  was  great  at  this  time,  was  a  profound  admirer  of  Jefferson. 

'  This  privilege  was  also  granted  to  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  in 
1821.   Ibid.,  10. 

'  History  of  St.  Clair  County,  207.  After  being  reenacted  once,  the  law 
was  abolished  in  1831. 


224  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

determined  by  the  fact  that  most  of  them  came  to  stay. 
They  did  not  expect  to  leave  the  clearing  in  the  forest 
as  soon  as  half  a  dozen  neighbors  surrounded  them; 
here  they  intended  to  plant  permanent  homes  for  them- 
selves, and  here  they  meant  to  rear  their  children/  The 
sober  perseverance  of  New  England,  the  enterprise  of 
New  York,  the  steadiness  of  Pennsylvania,  —  all  these 
were  called  into  requisition  by  the  difficulties  of  pioneer- 
ing in  Michigan,  where  almost  every  mile  of  ground  had 
to  be  cleared  of  trees  before  large  farms  could  be  culti- 
vated.^ Few  wealthy  men  came  at  first;  the  population 
was  made  up  of  hardy,  honest,  small  farmers,  very  tena- 
cious of  their  rights,  but  willing  to  concede  to  others  the 
same  privileges  each  demanded  for  himself.^  As  a  conse- 
quence there  grew  up  a  very  independent  state,  but  one 
which  is  more  flexible  in  its  character  than  those  of  New 
England,  by  virtue  of  the  compromises  necessary  where 
men  come  from  different  parts  of  the  country  to  meet 
in  a  wilderness  where  a  commonwealth  must  be  welded 
by  the  union  of  all  the  diverse  elements  within  its 
boundaries. 

In  1824  there  were  but  nine  villages  besides  Detroit 
in  the  whole  territory ;  *  a  few  pioneers  had  pierced  their 

*  Judge  Albert  Miller,  "Pioneer  Sketches,"  in  Mich.  Pion.  Soc.  Coll., 
vii,  251. 

»  The  first  cabinet-maker  in  Grand  Rapids,  now  the  greatest  centre  for 
the  manufacture  of  furniture  in  the  United  States,  came  from  Keene, 
N.  H.  The  lumbering  interests  of  Michigan  have  been  of  importance 
since  its  early  history. 

«  J.  H.  Lanman,  Hist,  of  Michigan,  295-297. 

*  A.  D.  P.  Van  Buren,  "  Pioneer  Annals,"  in  Mich.  Pion.  Soc.  Coll.f  v, 
248.  These  were  Port  Lawrence,  Monroe,  Frenchtown,  Pontiac,  Browns- 
town,  Truax's  (near  Detroit),  Mt.  Clemens,  Palmer,  and  Saginaw.  See 
map  opposite  page  206. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       225 

way  into  the  southwestern  corner  through  an  absolutely 
unbroken  wilderness,  some  on  foot,  others  on  ponies, 
fording  streams,  following  Indian  trails,  crossing 
swamps,  and  dropping  down  at  night  to  sleep  in  the 
woods.^  That  year,  however,  saw  the  Erie  Canal  com- 
pleted, and  together  the  New  Englanders  and  New 
Yorkers  took  steamboat  passage  from  Buffalo  for  Detroit. 
The  Ohio  River  afforded  a  highway  for  emigrants  to  the 
southern  portions  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  but  the 
way  to  northern  Illinois  and  Indiana,  and  to  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin,  was  overland,  —  a  long  and  tedious 
journey.  The  Erie  Canal  made  possible  the  settlement 
of  these  states  by  people  from  the  North ;  the  whole 
character  of  the  region  north  of  the  Ohio  might  have 
been  very  different  had  not  that  great  highway,  with 
steamboat  navigation,  opened  up  to  the  pioneer  from 
New  England  and  New  York  the  possibilities  of  the 
Northwest. 

At  Detroit  the  possible  routes  to  the  West  divided ; 
—  the  first  comers  followed  the  "Chicago  road,"  which 
was  laid  out  and  built  in  1825  by  the  government  as 
a  military  measure,  and  ran  from  Detroit  through 
southern  Michigan,  around  the  end  of  the  lake  to  Fort 
Dearborn,  Illinois.^  Those  who  followed  this  thorough- 
fare peopled  the  southern  tier  of  counties,  dotting  the 
prairies  with  hamlets  and  farms.  The  stream  which  came 
after  1834  went  out  over  the  territorial  road  directly 


1  D.  A.  Winslow,  "  Early  History  of  Berrien  County,"  in  Mich.  Pion, 
Soc.  Coll.,  i,  122, 

'  A.  B.  Copley,  "Early  Settlement  of  Southwestern  Michigan,"  in 
Mich.  Pion.  Soc.  CoU.f  v,  151.   See  map  for  1830,  facing  page  210. 


M      THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

west,  and  settled  the  second  tier  of  counties,  until  they 
reached  the  southwestern  corner  of  the  state,  where 
they  found  themselves  preceded  by  hardy  frontiersmen 
from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  the  southern  parts  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois,  who  had  followed  in  the  footsteps 
of  Indian  fighters  like  Wayne.  This  advance  guard  had 
already  selected  the  choicest  land  in  the  counties  north- 
east of  Berrien,  and  later  comers  passed  north  to  find 
fertile  lands  as  yet  unoccupied.  By  1835,  at  least 
seventeen  more  towns  had  been  settled,  besides  many 
farms  not  near  any  village.^  From  that  time,  the  settle- 
ment of  Michigan  went  on  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
The  fever  for  purchasing  lands  which  preceded  the 
panic  of  1837  affected  Michigan  as  it  did  the  states  to 
the  south  and  west;  the  crisis  of  1837-39  checked 
the  movement  for  a  short  time ;  then  the  tide  of  im- 
migration poured  in  even  more  strongly  than  before. 
This  tide  after  1825  always  carried  the  New  Englanders 
with  it,  and  New  Yorkers  as  well. 

For  this  study,  the  New  England  immigration  is 
of  peculiar  interest.  Upon  the  publication  of  John 
Farmer's  map  of  Michigan,  1825-30,  New  Englanders 
found  therein  the  accurate  information  concerning  that 
territory  which  their  caution  demanded ;  by  1837  "  it 
seemed  as  if  all  New  England  were  coming"  to  the 
state.^  The  fever  for  emigration  pervaded  the  whole 
region  from  Rhode  Island  to  Vermont,  and  every  one 
seemed  to  have  adopted  for  his  own  the  popular  song, 

>  A.  D.  P.  Van  Buren,  "Pioneer  Annals,"  in  Mich.  Pion.  Soc.  Coll.,  v, 
249.  See  maps  opposite  pages  236  and  246. 
'  Silas  Farmer,  Detroit,  335. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       227 

^^  Michiganla."  *  Vermont  sent  most  emigrants  ;  — 
12,588  of  Michigan's  citizens  in  1880  were  born  in  the 
Green  Mountain  State.  Massachusetts  had  by  the  same 
report  9591;  Connecticut,  6333;  Maine,  5079;  New 
Hampshire,  3300,  and  Rhode  Island,  974.  In  the  earliest 
days  most  of  the  Bay  State  representatives  moved  to  De- 
troit and  Kalamazoo,  while  Kent  County  was  most  attrac- 
tive to  Vermonters.  But  the  whole  state  is  filled  with  re- 
presentatives of  the  New  England  region,  mingling  with 
their  near  neighbors  of  the  same  stock  from  New  York. 
A  glance  at  Berrien  County  will  show  the  character 
of  the  New  England  settlements.  From  1831  to  1842 
pioneers  came  from  Norwich,  Stamford,  and  New  Mil- 
ford,  Connecticut;  Leominster,  Chicopee,  and  Harwich, 
Massachusetts;  Weybridge,  Shoreham,  Westminster, 
Addison,  East  Poultney,  and  Windsor  County,  Ver- 
mont ;  Nelson,  New  Hampshire ;  and  from  Maine.^  One 
pioneer  will  serve  to  typify  hundreds.  John  Perrin, 
his  wife,  five  sons,  and  four  daughters,  were  the  first 
settlers  of  Jefferson  township,  Hillsdale  County.  In  1835 
they  left  their  home  in  Woodstock,  Connecticut,  took  a 
vessel  from  Norwich  to  Albany,  and  made  their  journey 
through  New  York  over  the  Erie  Canal.  At  Buffalo 
they  boarded  a  steamer  bound  for  Detroit,  which  they 
reached  three  weeks  from  the  day  they  bade  good-by 
to  their  old  home.  Leaving  the  rest  of  the  family  behind, 

*  The  first  verse  runs  thus  :  — 

•'  Come,  all  ye  Yankee  farmers  who  wish  to  change  your  lot, 
Who  've  spunk  enough  to  travel  beyond  your  native  spot, 
And  leave  behind  the  village  where  Pa  and  Ma  do  stay, 
Come  follow  me,  and  settle  in  Michigania,  — 
Yea,  yea,  yea,  in  Michigania."  —  Detroit. 

^  Hist,  of  Berrien  and  Van  Buren  Counties^  144-310. 


228  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

tlie  father  and  the  two  eldest  sons  started  out  from 
Detroit  to  locate  a  farm ;  they  passed  the  Bear  Creek 
valley,  traveling  on  till  they  found  a  spring  gushing 
from  a  rock  on  the  hilly  slopes  of  Jefferson  township. 
All  the  surroundings  were  so  like  the  old  Connecticut 
home,  that  there  the  pioneer  cabin  was  built, — the  first 
house  in  the  township.^  Again  and  again  did  the  set- 
tlers seek  out  the  wooded  lands  which  bore  a  striking 
resemblance  to  the  tree-covered  hills  to  which  they 
were  accustomed  in  the  East. 

Nor  did  the  pioneers  come  always  by  single  families. 
In  many  an  instance  neighborhoods  were  settled  by 
small  colonies,  who  came  in  sufficient  numbers  to  give 
to  their  new  homes  the  character  of  the  old ;  and  once 
wholesome  social  surroundings  were  established,  others 
were  attracted,  who  had  come  to  the  West  to  better 
their  condition.  Such  a  colony  was  that  which  settled  in 
Sylvan  township,  Washtenaw  County;  ten  or  twelve 
families  came  from  Addison  County,  Vermont,  between 
1832  and  1834,  to  form  what  has  always  been  called 
the  '^  Vermont  Settlement."  ^  Here  their  Congregational 
church  was  organized  in  1835.  Another  example  is  the 
Monroe  colony,  which  was  begun  in  1816  by  two  bro- 
thers from  Koyalston,  Massachusetts,  whose  neighbors 
in  the  succeeding  years  were  from  various  Connecticut 
towns,  from  Scituate  in  Rhode  Island,  from  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Vermont.  It  was  known  in  1834  as  a  New 
England  colony ; ^  "it  was  composed  of  men  of  such 

»  C.  Johnson,  Hillsdale  County,  272. 

2  Hist,  of  Washtenaw  County,  753,  764. 

3  T.  E.  Wing  (ed.),  Hist,  of  Monroe  County,  158-590,  for  lives  of 
pioneers. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       229 

Intelligence  and  strength  of  character  that  in  the  early 
days  of  the  State  it  was  known  as  '  the  independent 
state  of  Monroe.'  "  ^  — ^ 

The  Vermontville  colony  deserves  a  longer  descrip- 
tion.^ Here  an  organized  company  of  emigrants  from 
the  Green  Mountain  State,  "  with  Michigan,  a  church 
and  a  school  in  their  minds,"  purchased  land  of  the 
government  under  a  written  compact,  drawn  up  at  East 
Poultney,  upon  the  advice  and  under  the  direction  of 
their  minister.  Rev.  Sylvester  Cochrane,  who  alone  of 
all  the  band  had  ever  seen  the  land  upon  which  it  was 
proposed  to  settle.  With  the  threefold  purpose  of  pro- 
moting the  spread  of  the  Gospel  in  the  wilderness,  of 
advancing  their  own  prosperity,  and  of  carrying  their 
moral  and  intellectual  ideals  to  the  frontier,  they  drew 
up  a  constitution  and  by-laws,  and  dispatched  a  com- 
mittee to  prepare  the  way  for  the  arrival  of  the  colony. 
The  committee  had  no  easy  task,  for  in  1836  the  fever 
for  speculation  in  Michigan  lands  had  sent  the  price  of 
the  unoccupied  tracts  to  a  point  far  beyond  their  worth, 
and  it  was  difficult  to  find  a  place  where  each  of  the 
thirty  investors  whose  money  the  committee  carried 
might  have  a  quarter-section  for  his  farm  and  a  ten-acre 
lot  for  his  village  home  as  well  situated  as  those  of  any 
of  his  neighbors.  After  several  weeks  of  careful  pros- 
pecting, the  site  for  the  town  was  finally  chosen  at 
what  is  now  Vermontville,  Eaton  County;  and  the  pur- 
chase made  at  the  land-office  in  Kalamazoo.  Trees  were 
felled,  and  a  village  laid  out  around  a  public  square ; 

1  Ibid.,  158. 

2  E.  W.  Barber,  «  The  Vermontville  Colony,"  in  Mich.  Pion.  Soc.  Coll., 
xxviii,  2,  197-265. 


230  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

then  the  colonists  began  to  arrive.  By  wagon,  canal, 
lake,  and  rude  Michigan  forest-roads,  they  made  their 
way  from  East  Poultney  to  their  Vermontville  home. 
Their  Congregational  church,  with  Rev.  Sylvester 
Cochrane  as  pastor,  was  organized  at  the  very  begin- 
ning; for  the  first  few  years  the  minister  was  paid  in 
work  on  his  land,  in  money  or  in  produce,  as  the  parish- 
ioners could  best  afford.  The  school  was  held  for  a  year 
in  the  log  cabin  of  one  family ;  then  a  log  schoolhouse 
was  erected,  and  the  children  were  taught  for  seven 
months  in  the  year.  A  few  years  later  an  academy  on 
the  Vermont  plan  was  organized  to  carry  on  the  educa- 
tion of  those  who  had  finished  the  work  in  the  little  log 
schoolhouse.  In  politics  the  colonists  at  Yermontville 
were  divided,  curiously  enough ;  those  who  came  from 
Rutland  and  Addison  counties  were  Whigs,  while  their 
neighbors  from  Bennington  County  were  "  rock-rooted 
Democrats."  But  all  had  the  democratic  idea,  all  held 
to  the  equality  of  man  in  all  his  rights,  political  and 
social,  and  when  in  1854  the  Republican  party  was 
organized,  Vermontville  became  practically  united  in 
its  ranks  in  a  warfare  against  the  extension  of  slavery. 
Marietta,  Ohio,  played  no  mean  part  in  helping  to 
shape  Michigan's  future  character.  Itself  a  New  Eng- 
land colony.  Marietta  sent  the  first  settler  to  Detroit 
after  the  British  evacuation  of  that  post  in  1796, — 
Solomon  Sibley,  who  became  a  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  General  Lewis  Cass,  born  in  Exeter,  New  Hamp- 
shire, served  an  apprenticeship  at  pioneering  for  fourteen 
years  in  Marietta  before  he  became  the  second  governor 
of  Michigan  Territory  in  1815, — a  post  he  filled  till  1831. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       231 

During  those  sixteen  years  he  negotiated  twenty-one 
Indian  treaties,  thereby  making  Michigan  a  safe  home 
for  hundreds  of  families  which  were  soon  to  give  to  the 
state  its  distinctively  New  England  character.  General 
Cass  left  the  governor's  chair  to  be  Secretary  of  War ; 
then  after  a  time  United  States  Senator  from  Michigan ; 
in  1848  a  candidate  for  the  presidency;  and  lastly, 
Buchanan's  Secretary  of  State;  —  such  was  the  part 
played  in  the  national  councils  by  the  most  eminent  of 
Michigan's  statesmen.^  William  Woodbridge,  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Territory  after  1815,  though  born  in  Nor- 
wich, Connecticut,  was  a  Marietta  lawyer  who  had  stud- 
ied in  the  same  of&ce  with  Cass ;  he  became  governor  of 
the  state  in  1839.^  Isaac  Crary,  the  territorial  delegate 
and  the  first  representative  Michigan  sent  to  Congress, 
was  born  in  Preston,  Connecticut.^ 

Such  were  the  men  who  helped  lay  the  foundations 
of  Michigan's  development  in  the  territorial  days ;  but 
New  England  influence  did  not  end  with  statehood.  A 
list  of  the  first  fourteen  men  who  occupied  the  gover- 
nor's chair  after  Michigan's  admission  to  the  Union  will 
illustrate  the  prominence  of  New  England  and  New 
York  pioneers  in  politics,^ — six  from  New  England,  six 

*  Representative  Men  of  Michigan^  35,  36.  Also  J.  V.  Campbell,  Outlines 
of  the  Polit.  Hist,  of  Mich. ^  217. 

'  Representative  Men  of  Michigan^  156. 

3  Ihid.y  «  Third  Congressional  District,"  28. 

*  First      governor     .     .     native  of  Virginia. 
.     .     .    "      of  Norwich,  Ct.,  but  had  lived  in  Ohio. 
.    .     .    "      of  Amherst,  N.  H.,  but  had  lived  in  Vt. 

(2  terms)  "     of  Limerick,  Me. 
..."      ofHamilton,  N.  Y. 
..."      of  Massachusetts. 


Second 

<i 

Third 

« 

Fourth 

(( 

Fifth 

it 

Sixth 

tt 

232  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

from  New  York,  one  from  Virginia,   and  one  from 
Pennsylvania. 

From  the  character  of  the  population  it  is  easy  to 
predict  that  the  attention  of  Michigan  pioneers  would 
be  centred  at  the  first  opportunity  upon  the  question 
of  schools.  S.  F.  Drury,  born  in  Spencer,  Massachusetts, 
•who  had  become  much  interested  in  common  school 
education  in  his  old  home,  originated  and  organized  in 
the  state  of  his  adoption  a  teachers'  institute,  which 
grew  into  the  State  Normal  School  of  Otsego.^  He 
worked  for  the  charter  of  Olivet  College  in  1859,  and 
several  years  later  helped  to  found  Drury  College  in 
^"Yiyift  ,t-»*>>»411iaois.  Michigan  normal  schools  owe  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude to  Rev.  John  D.  Pierce,  a  graduate  of  Brown 
University,  who  had  come  to  Michigan  as  a  Presbyterian 
missionary,  and  was  the  first  superintendent  of  public 
instruction  after  Michigan  became  a  state ;  Mr.  Pierce 
suggested  the  idea  of  a  system  of  normal  schools  in 
1836.^  But  Michigan's  chief  pride  is  her  university,  the 


Seventh  governor 


native  of  Greencastle,  Penn. 


Eighth  «      .     .     .     .    «      of  Hoosick,  N.  Y. 

Ninth  «      .     .     .     .    «      of  Camillus,  N.  Y. 

Tenth  «      .     .     .     .    "      of  Springport,  N.  Y. 

Eleventh       "      .     .     .     .    "      of  Caroline,  N.  Y. 

Twelfth        «      .     .     .     .    «      of  Dartmouth,  Mass. 

Thirteenth   «      .     .     .     .    "      of  Coventry,  R.  I. 

Fourteenth  "      .     ..."      of  Medina,  N.  Y. 
(This  to  1877) 

In  Portrait  and  Biographical  Record  of  Genesee,  Lapeer,  and  Tuscola 
Counties,  105-157. 

1  J.  B.  Porter,  "Memoir  of  S.  F.  Drury,"  in  Mich.  Pion.  Soc.  Coll.,  vii, 
382,  383. 

^  A.  C.  McLaughlin,  Higher  Education  in  Michigan,  99, 100.  (In  Bureau 
of  Education,  Circular  no.  4,  1891.) 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       233 

/head  of  the  public  school  system  of  the  state,  and  the 
model  of  almost  all  state  universities  since  founded. 
Isaac  Crary,  of  whom  mention  has  been  made,  was  chair- 
man of  the  committee  on  education  in  the  Michigan 
constitutional  convention,  and  to  him  may  be  attributed, 
more  than  to  any  one  else,  the  system  as  it  is  to-day. 
He  had  made  a  study  of  Cousin's  famous  report  on  the 
Prussian  system  of  education,  and  German  influence 
was  especially  strong,  when  it  was  carried  out  along 
practical  lines  by  men  with  strong  predilections  for 
popular  education.*  Mr.  Crary  had  been  educated  at 
Bacon  Academy,  Colchester,  Connecticut,  and  at  Wash- 
ington (now  Trinity)  College,  Hartford.  President 
Angell,  under  whose  administration  the  university  has 
taken  a  place  in  the  front  rank  of  American  colleges, 
is  a  native  of  Scituate,  Rhode  Island,  and  a  graduate 
of  Brown  University.^ 

Olivet  College  represents  New  England,  and  Puritan 
Congregationalism  in  Ohio.  Founded  in  1844,  it  was 
the  child  of  Oberlin ;  to  its  planting  Oberlin  graduates 
contributed  more  than  any  other  persons.  The  original 
plan  was  for  both  a  college  and  a  Christian  colony,  the 
latter  to  found  and  foster  the  former ;  but  the  scheme 

^  Professor  Lucy  M.  Salmon  has  a  valuable  article  on  Judge  Wood- 
ward's plan  for  a  university  in  the  days  when  Michigan  was  still  a  terri- 
tory, "Education  in  Michigan  during  the  Territorial  Period,"  in  Mich. 
Pion.  Soc.  Coll.,  vii,  36-38. 

See,  also,  Professor  Salmon's  article,  "  Types  of  State  Education,"  in 
the  New  England  Magazine,  January,  1897,  pp.  601,  607. 

2  A.  C.  McLaughlin,  Higher  Education  in  Michigan,  34,  35,  73.  The 
university  was  not  coeducational  until  1870.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  how  great  a  part  economy  has  played  in  making  Western  institutions 
so  largely  coeducational. 


234  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

did  not  work  out  wholly  in  practice.  The  Congrega- 
tional church  of  Olivet  was,  however,  organized  the 
year  after  the  college  was  founded,  and  the  two  have 
always  been  intimately  connected.^ 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  school  goes  the  church, 
following  Puritan  tradition.  At  first  Congregationalism 
in  Michigan  was  "largely  merged  in  Presby terianism " 
by  the  "  Plan  of  Union  "  with  which  we  were  familiar 
in  New  York,  and  many  of  the  churches  so  constituted 
in  the  beginning  have  continued  to  be  Presbyterian 
down  to  the  present.^  In  1835  six  Congregational 
churches  had  been  organized,  most  of  which  never  made 
any  compromise  with  the  "  accommodation  system  " ; 
within  five  years  the  formation  of  an  association  of 
their  own  denomination  gave  them  the  advantage  of 
organization  which  they  had  lacked  before.  By  1855 
there  were  106  Congregational  churches  in  Michigan 
under  their  own  associations,  with  4987  members ;  in 
1880,  226,  with  a  roll  of  17,064  names.  Congregation- 
alism has  been  from  the  beginning  strong  in  Michi- 
gan ;  it  would  have  been  stronger  probably,  but  for  the 
change  it  had  already  undergone  in  New  York  and 
Ohio  through  the  "  Plan  of  Union  "  system,  —  a  com- 
promise to  frontier  conditions  which  emigrants  from 
those  states  transplanted  to  their  Michigan  homes. 

Nor  is  the  third  traditional  institution  wanting; 
Michigan  was  the  first  Western  state  to  adopt  the  town- 

*  S.  W.  Durant,  Hist,  of  Ingham  and  Eaton  Counties,  530,  532.  Also 
George  W.  Keyes,  "  Sketch  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,"  ibid.j 
535. 

'  Rev.  D.  P.  Hurd,  "  Congregationalism  in  Michigan,"  in  Micli.  Pion* 
Soc.  Coll.,  vii,  103-116. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       235 

meeting,  though  her  example  has  been  followed  by 
Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Minnesota.  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois  all  show  a  compromise  system  analogous  to  that 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania;  the  Michigan  system 
is  most  like  that  of  Massachusetts.  On  the  first  Monday 
in  April  of  each  year  the  meeting  is  held,  and  may  be 
attended  by  every  male  citizen  of  the  state  who  is  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  Here  the  supervisor  presides, 
and  is  one  of  three  inspectors  of  election,  the  others 
being  the  justice  of  the  peace  whose  office  soonest 
expires,  and  the  clerk  of  the  township.  All  who  attend 
the  meeting  may  participate  in  the  conduct  of  it.  After 
officers  have  been  chosen,  the  electors  discuss  town  busi- 
ness. They  listen  to  complaints,  —  as  of  cattle  running 
at  large ;  they  regulate  such  matters  as  licensing  dogs, 
keeping  and  selling  gunpowder,  maintaining  hospitals, 
and  so  on.  The  various  officers  of  the  township  also 
make  their  reports  at  this  time.  The  difference  between 
the  Michigan  town-meeting  and  that  in  New  England 
is  that  in  Michigan  incorporated  villages  which  exist 
within  the  township  may  either  in  village-meeting  or 
through  their  trustees  provide  for  the  administration  of 
their  own  local  affairs,  as  in  the  regulation  of  the  fire 
department,  police,  and  streets,  —  and  therefore  do  not 
vote  in  town-meeting.  Where  Massachusetts  has  three 
selectmen,  Michigan  has  one  supervisor,  whose  duties 
are  not  administrative  as  in  Massachusetts,  but  rather 
executive  and  clerical.  Most  distinctive  is  the  Michigan 
township  board,  which  is  made  up  of  the  supervisor, 
township  clerk,  and  two  justices  of  the  peace,  and  which 
exercises  many  of  the  powers  of  the  Massachusetts  select- 


236      THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

men.  "Michigan  borrowed  the  organization  [of  this 
body]  from  the  county  board  of  New  York,  and  its 
powers  from  Massachusetts."  ^ 

But  one  state  remains  for  our  study,  —  Wisconsin. 
Save  for  a  few  French  settlers  scattered  here  and  there, 
a  remnant  which  had  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Jesuit 
priests  and  Canadian  fur-traders,  Wisconsin  was  until 
1826  a  veritable  wilderness.  In  that  year  there  came  to 
the  southwestern  corner  of  the  territory,  following  up 
the  Mississippi  Kiver,  some  venturesome  Southerners 
from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri,  attracted  to 
the  region  by  the  rich  lead  mines  found  there.  It  was 
in  this  way  that  Galena  came  to  be  for  many  years  a 
far  more  important  market  and  trading  point  than  was 
Milwaukee,  and  was  well-known  when  Chicago  was  no- 
thing more  than  a  fort.  Lead  mining  was  a  great  indus- 
try on  one  side  of  the  territory,  when  agriculture  was 
just  beginning  on  the  other.  Finally,  the  two  streams  of 
emigrants  met  about  midway,  but  even  to-day  south- 
eastern Wisconsin  has  characteristics  which  quite  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  other  portions  of  the  state.^ 

The  Black  Hawk  War  was  a  very  potent  factor  in 
directing  the  attention  of  the  East  to  the  great  tracts  of 
land  north  of  Illinois  which  were  not  only  unoccupied, 
but  were  only  slightly  explored.  The  newspapers  pub- 
lished glowing  accounts  of  the  rich  country  of  northern 
Illinois  and  its  neighbor  on  Lake  Michigan ;  soldiers 
carried  back  tales  to  their  friends ;  and  speedily  thou- 

^  E.  W.  Bemis,  Local  Government  in  Michigan  and  the  Northwest^  14-17. 
For  settlement  in  1840,  see  map  opposite. 

'  Tenney  and  Atwood,  Memorial  Record  of  the  Fathers  of  Wisconsin^ 
14. 


90  Longitude        West  86  from        (ircenwich 


New  England  Settlement 

in  the  old 

Northwest  Territory. 

1840 

I  INew  England 

' '  Settlement 

|.:::\fa;v:-|An  Qther  Settlement 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       237 

sands  of  ^^intelligent,  hardy,  and  enterprising"  people 
from  New  York  and  New  England  swarmed  in.  Settle- 
ments were  begun  along  the  lake  shore  in  1834.  The 
land  in  Green  County  was  brought  into  the  market  in 
1835 ;  within  five  years  that  section  had  many  inhabit- 
ants, most  of  whom  came  from  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio, 
Pennsylvania,  or  Virginia,  Illinois  contributing  the 
most.  Hardly  any  came  from  New  England,  but  some 
who  were  the  children  of  New  England  parents  came 
from  New  York.^  Prairie  du  Chien,  an  old  French  town, 
had  in  1837  nearly  one  hundred  French  families,  but 
only  ten  American  ones,  and  four  unmarried  American 
men.^  Among  these  Americans  was  an  itinerant  Meth- 
odist preacher  from  Connecticut,  a  wanderer  from 
Machias,  Maine,  who  had  lived  a  year  in  Michigan,  and 
one  man  from  Vermont.^  Before  1841  settlements  had 
been  made  in  the  fertile  Rock  River  valley,  and  in  the 
country  between  these  farms  and  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan.  The  panic  of  1837  brought  many  families 
who  sought  to  retrieve  their  fortunes  in  the  West ;  these 
came  in,  many  of  them,  by  way  of  the  Wisconsin  River 
valley  ;  lastly  settlers  came  up  the  Mississippi  River,  and 
moved  along  its  eastern  tributaries.  By  1850,  even  the 
northwestern  corner  of  the  state  was  receiving  its  small 
share  of  immigrants."* 

The  institutions  of  Wisconsin  would  naturally,  so  one 
might  suppose,  have  been  shaped  by  the  workers  on  its 

^  H.  M.  Bingham,  Hist,  of  Green  County ^  15. 

2  W.  H.  C.  Folsom,  Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest,  19. 

3  Ibid.,  26,  28. 

«  W.  C.  Whitford,  "  Early  Education  in  Wisconsin,"  in  CoU.  of  Wit. 
Hist.  Soc.j  V,  335.  See  maps  opposite  pages  236  and  246. 


238      THE  EXPANSION-  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

two  frontiers,  —  by  Kentuckians  and  their  coadjutors 
in  the  lead-mining  regions,  as  well  as  by  the  emigrants 
who  had  come  in  around  Eacine  and  Milwaukee  by  way 
of  the  Erie  Canal  and  the  Great  Lakes.  At  first  this 
was  true,  and  two  systems  of  local  government  grew  up 
in  Wisconsin  during  the  territorial  stage ;  —  in  the 
earlier  settled  counties  in  the  southwestern  corner  the 
county  system  came  in  with  the  Southern  emigrants  ; 
while  the  eastern  districts,  filled  up  by  New  Yorkers 
and  New  Englanders,  adopted  the  township  form  of  or- 
ganization. These  two  systems  existed  side  by  side,  as 
it  were,  throughout  the  territorial  stage,  until  the  state 
constitution  was  formed  in  1846-47.  But  they  did  not 
exist  in  peace ;  in  1841,  when  emigrants  from  the  East 
had  become  sufficiently  numerous  to  protest,  their  in- 
fluence was  strong  enough  to  secure  a  change  from  the 
county  commissioner  plan  which  had  been  in  force  up 
to  that  time,  and  a  law  was  passed  by  which  the  people 
of  each  county  might  determine  whether  for  them  local 
government  should  be  based  on  the  Southern  plan  or  on 
that  of  New  England.  When  Wisconsin  was  admitted 
as  a  state  in  1848,  only  five  counties  were  retaining  the 
county  system,  and  these  were  the  southeastern  counties 
of  the  lead-mining  district,  where  Southerners  were  still 
in  the  majority.^ 

In  the  end  the  New  York  system  of  local  government 
—  itself  a  compromise  with  leanings  toward  the  New 
England  form  —  triumphed,  and  was  embodied  in  the 
state  constitution.    The  reason  for  its  adoption  is  not 

*  D.  E.  Spencer,  "  Local  Government  in  Wisconsin,"  Coll.  of  Wis.  Hist. 
Soc.,  xi,  505-507. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       239 

difficult  to  ascertain  when  one  has  examined  the  person- 
nel of  those  bodies  which  determined  the  lines  along 
which  Wisconsin's  development  as  a  state  should  run. 
There  were  two  constitutional  conventions  held  in  Wis- 
consin, the  first  in  1846,  whose  work  was  rejected,  the 
second  in  1847.  In  the  1846  convention  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  delegates,  twenty-nine  were  known  to 
be  New  England  men,  ten  more  had  New  England  par- 
ents, and  "  of  the  forty-two  natives  of  New  York  .  .  . 
many  names  .  .  .  suggest  Puritan  origin."  *  The  con- 
vention of  1847  contained  sixty-nine  delegates,  of  whom 
twenty-four  were  from  New  England,  and  five  more  of 
New  England  origin.  Thirty-two  men  were  in  both 
bodies  and  held  positions  of  prominence ;  of  these  four- 
teen were  of  New  England  birth  or  stock.^  Under  such 
conditions  the  outcome  as  to  local  government  could 
not  be  doubtful.  A  law  was  framed  by  which  each 
county  was  to  have  a  board  of  three  supervisors,  one 
from  each  district  into  which  the  county  was  to  be  di- 
vided. These  were  given  charge  of  the  general  concerns 
of  the  county,  while  the  town  government  was  left  in- 

^  E.  B.  Usher,  "  Puritan  Influence  in  Wisconsin,"  in  Proc.  of  Wis.  Hist. 
Soc.  for  1898,  p.  119. 

2  Tbid.  One  of  these  was  born  in  East  Haddam,  Connecticut,  and  came 
to  Wisconsin  from  the  Western  Reserve.  He  was  a  Whig-,  and  governor 
of  the  state  in  1861.  Others  were  from  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island, 
Vermont,  and  Massachusetts.  In  the  convention  of  1846  there  were  eight 
men  of  Connecticut  birth,  eighteen  of  Vermont,  one  of  New  Hampshire, 
one  of  Rhode  Island,  one  of  Maine.  Tenney  and  Atwood,  Fathers  of  Wis- 
consin, 20.  Four  men  were  from  New  Jersey. 

In  the  convention  of  1847,  nine  men  were  of  Connecticut  birth,  six  of 
Massachusetts,  five  of  Vermont,  three  of  New  Hampshire,  one  of  Maine. 
Hid.,  21. 


240  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

tact.  To-day  Wisconsin  has  three  supervisors  who  cor- 
respond in  their  duties  to  the  New  England  selectmen.* 

Kacine  County  is  a  typical  New  England  region  in 
Wisconsin,  for  it  was  from  an  early  day  a  favorite  with 
settlers  from  the  East.  Its  original  pioneer  of  1835  was 
born  in  Chatham,  Massachusetts ;  within  a  year  after  his 
arrival  hundreds  of  actual  settlers  had  begun  log  cabins 
near  his  own.  Several  of  the  newcomers  were  from 
Derby,  Connecticut ;  within  sixteen  years  others  had 
come  from  every  New  England  state,  except  Rhode 
Island,  though  some  had  sojourned  for  a  time  in  New 
York  and  had  been  swept  on  toward  the  Mississippi  by 
the  outgoing  tide  of  emigration.  One  of  the  earliest 
arrivals  had  been  born  in  Burlington,  Vermont ;  he  had 
lived  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  then  in  Illinois, 
and  in  1835  took  up  his  permanent  abode  in  Racine, 
having  doubtless  had  enough  of  pioneering.^ 

To  show  how  like  the  settlement  of  New  York,  Ohio, 
and  Michigan  is  the  beginning  of  Wisconsin,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  tell  the  story  of  the  founding  of  Beloit.^ 
Here,  as  in  most  other  Wisconsin  towns,  the  pioneers 

^  Bemis,  "  Local  Government  in  Michigan  and  the  Northwest,"  in  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies^  i,  no.  5,  p.  17. 

2  Hist,  of  Racine  and  Kenosha  Counties,  567.  In  Racine  County  mingled 
arrivals  from  Bennington,  Tunbridge,  and  Brattleboro,  Vermont ;  from 
Sunderland,  Royalston,  Westford,  Sandisfield,  Greenwich,  Williamstown, 
Ashfield,  Berkshire  County,  and  Monson,  Massachusetts  ;  Londonderry 
and  Deerfield,  New  Hampshire  ;  Cheshire,  Bristol,  and  Colebrook,  Con- 
necticut ;  Boothbay  and  Dexter,  Maine.  See  ibid.^  567-629.  This  is  but 
one  of  dozens  of  counties  which  give  the  same  mixture  from  all  over 
New  England  ;  the  examples  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely. 

3  H.  M.  Whitney,  "The  settlement  of  Beloit,"  in  Proc.  of  Wis.  Hist. 
Soc.  for  1898,  129-136.  The  following  paragraphs  follow  his  little  sketch 
very  closely. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       241 

came  with  the  intention  of  staying.  They  were  not  the 
restless  sort  who  came  to  settle  temporarily,  expecting 
to  sell  later  at  a  higher  price,  and  move  on  to  Minne- 
sota or  to  Dakota,  there  to  repeat  the  toil  and  privation, 
the  hardship  and  frequent  disappointment  of  the  ear- 
liest pioneer  in  the  wilderness.  Such  emigrants  had 
passed  by  the  site  of  Beloit,  and  turned  their  eyes  to 
other  fields. 

Twelve  men  in  the  village  of  Colebrook,  New  Hamp- 
shire, banded  together  in  October,  1836,  to  form  the 
*'New  England  Emigrating  Company,"  with  one  Dr. 
Horace  White  as  their  agent.  Determined  to  move  to 
the  West,  they  sent  Dr.  White  ahead  to  select  for  the 
company  a  new  home  in  Wisconsin.  The  level  fields,  the 
water  power  of  Turtle  Creek,  the  "unlimited  gravel" 
of  the  country  about  Beloit  fixed  the  site  of  the  in- 
tended village  and  farms,  and  here  Dr.  White  made  the 
purchase  for  his  company.  By  the  middle  of  the  next 
summer  the  colonists  were  on  the  ground,  and  were 
beginning  to  build  homes  and  cultivate  fields.  Besides 
the  Colebrook  settlers,  six  families  came  from  Bedford, 
New  Hampshire,  doubtless  because  they  had  heard  of 
the  purpose  of  Dr.  White's  company  from  their  fellow 
townswoman,  Mrs.  White. 

Professor  Whitney,  in  his  sketch  of  Beloit,  brings 
out  the  practical,  hard-headed  business  sense  of  these  \ 
pioneers ;  he  tells  how  they  looked  about  for  a  location 
which  would  prosper  with  the  rest  of  the  region ;  he 
says  they  knew  "the  moral  value  of  having  gravel 
under  their  feet,"  and  they  realized  the  necessity  of 
getting  good  land.   They  saw,  too,  the  advantage  of 


24^      THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

having  a  quarry  and  good  oak  trees  on  their  tract.  They 
had  come  from  New  Hampshire  to  better  their  condi- 
tion, to  give  perchance  to  their  children  advantages 
which  would  have  been  beyond  their  purse  had  they 
stayed  upon  the  stubborn  soil  of  New  Hampshire.  More- 
over, the  whole  Rock  River  valley  has  ^'  a  New  England 
look,"  and  that  made  them  feel  at  home  immediately. 

They  planted  their  village  in  1838,  and  laid  out  wide 
streets  which  to-day  remind  the  traveler  instantly  of  a 
town  in  the  heart  of  New  England ;  "  College  Street " 
was  the  name  they  gave  one  of  the  choicest,  for  they  in- 
tended from  the  first  to  have  a  college  as  soon  as  they  could. 
They  were  of  the  stock  which  sees  the  school  go  hand 
in  hand  with  the  church,  and  far  from  the  one  college 
in  New  Hampshire,  they  determined  to  plant  another  at 
their  very  doors.  Beloit  College  is  a  memorial  of  the 
lofty  ideals  of  these  Colebrook  emigrants.  In  its  devel- 
opment the  college  has  followed  more  closely  the  lines 
of  organization  and  administration  of  Yale  than  those 
of  Dartmouth ;  its  presidents  and  many  of  its  professors 
have  been  from  the  Connecticut  institution.  But  it  is  a 
Congregational  and  a  New  England  product,  as  is  Dart- 
mouth, and  a  lasting  symbol  of  the  vision  of  its  found- 
ers, who  dreamed  from  the  first  that  a  Christian  college 
should  find  its  place  in  their  frontier  home,  to  perpet- 
uate the  Puritan  tradition  and  the  Puritan  ideal. 

The  colonists  had  brought  a  deacon  in  their  company, 
and  as  soon  as  they  arrived  they  began  to  hold  services  in 
a  kitchen  of  one  of  the  farmhouses,  all  the  congregation 
arriving  in  ox-wagons  on  Sunday  morning.  When  they 
were  ready  to  build  a  church,  they  bought  the  shingles 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       243 

in  Eacine  on  credit,  hauling  them  overland  with  an  ox- 
team  ;  "  and  they  honestly  paid  for  the  shingles  in  the 
spring."  ^  When  the  Congregationalists  of  Madison  be- 
gan to  build  a  church  themselves,  the  Beloit  pioneers, 
as  yet  hardly  out  of  the  log-cabin  stage  of  their  history, 
gave  $50  to  help  their  neighbors.  The  great  tenacity 
of  purpose  of  these  colonists,  their  lofty  ideals  of 
religion,  education,  and  state-building,  —  these  have 
left  an  impress  upon  Wisconsin  which  none  can  mistake. 
New  England  settlement  is  ever  the  same,  whether  it 
is  found  on  the  Mohawk,  or  on  the  banks  of  the  Wis- 
consin. Here  on  the  frontier, —  "wherever  .  .  .  a  .  .  . 
number  of  Eastern  emigrants  settled  together  in  the  state 
they  started  at  once  a  school."  ^  There  were  in  1836 
eight  little  private  schools  in  the  territory,  with  215 
pupils,  exclusive  of  the  schools  in  Milwaukee,  Kenosha, 
and  Sheboygan.  After  1837  Wisconsin  took  her  school 
code  almost  bodily  from  Michigan ;  it  is  to-day  a  very  \ 
close  reproduction  of  the  Michigan  system,  with  a  few 
additions  from  New  York.^  The  public  school  system, 
with  the  state  university  at  the  top,  and  with  the  nor- 
mal schools  for  the  training  of  teachers  for  the  lower 
schools,  —  all  this  is  like  Michigan.^ 


*  "  The  church  they  built  was  the  most  stately  of  the  three  Congrega- 
tional churches  existing  in  Wisconsin  in  1844,  —  so  stately,  indeed,  that  it 
got  into  two  editions  of  the  American  Encyclopedia."  —  H.  M.  Whitney, 
«  The  Settlement  of  Beloit,"  in  Proc.  of  Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  for  1898,  134. 

2  W.  C.  Whitford, "  Early  History  of  Education  in  Wisconsin,"  in  Coll. 
of  Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  V,  335. 

3  Ibid.,  337-344. 

*  The  normal  schools  are  largely  the  work  of  a  Connecticut  man  who 
came  to  Wisconsin  from  New  York.  Usher,  Puritan  Influence,  121. 


244  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Wherever  a  large  proportion  of  New  England  emi- 
grants is  found,  there  one  is  certain  to  come  upon  Congre- 
gational churches.  Indeed,  in  going  over  the  Western 
States,  one  can  almost  locate  New  England  people  by 
the  presence  of  Congregational  churches.  Wisconsin 
proves  the  rule;  a  few  typical  churches  will  tell  the 
story  of  many.  When  the  congregation  of  Troy,  in 
Walworth  County,  was  gathered  in  1839,  it  was  made 
up  of  six  persons  from  North  Hadley  and  two  from 
Roxbury,  Massachusetts.^  The  First  Congregational 
Church  of  Janesville  had  fifteen  charter  members,  eleven 
of  whom  came  from  New  England ;  another  had  moved 
from  Athens,  Pennsylvania,  but  came  of  Plainfield,  Con- 
necticut, stock.^  The  Madison  church  had  eight  pastors 
in  the  half -century  following  its  organization  in  1840 ; 
of  these,  seven  were  born  in  New  England.^  The  Emer- 
ald Grove  congregation  had  fourteen  charter  members, 
six  of  whom  were  born  in  Vermont ;  *  while  the  Prairie 
church  with  eighteen  members  numbered  five  from 
Vermont  and  two  from  Connecticut.^  Of  the  four  dea- 
cons in  the  Bloomington  church,  one  was  born  in  Ston- 
ington,  Connecticut ;  three  were  from  Vermont, —  Hart- 

*  Manuscript  report  of  the  formation  of  the  Congregational  Church  of 
Troy,  among  the  Dwinnell  Papers  in  the  Library  of  the  Wisconsin  Histori- 
cal Society. 

2  S.  P.  Wilder,  "  Hist,  of  the  Congregational  Church,"  in  Fiftieth  Anni- 
versary of  the  First  Cong.  Church  of  Janesville,  43.  Also  ibid.f  "  Our  Charter 
Members,"  47-51. 

^  F.  J.  Lamb,  "Former  Pastors,"  in  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  First 
Cong.  Church  of  Madison,  93  S. 

*  Rev.  R.  L.  Cheney,  "  Charter  Membership,"  in  the  Fiftieth  Anniver- 
sary of  the  Emerald  Grove  Church,  30. 

»  Rey.  R.  L.  Cheney,  "  Charter  Members,"  iu  -Prame  Churchy  17. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       245 

ford,  Derby,  and  Jericho.  The  Beloit  church  would,  of 
course,  be  almost  wholly  a  New  England  product :  of  its 
twenty-four  members,  seven  were  from  Colebrook,  and 
three  from  Groton,  New  Hampshire  ;  two  from  Hartland 
and  three  from  Milton,  Vermont ;  two  from  Maine ;  one 
each  from  Enfield,  Connecticut,  and  Providence,  Khode 
Island/  The  Presbyterian  churches  also  show  a  large 
New  England  and  New  York  membership,  as  is  to  be 
expected,  and  are  quite  as  strong  and  as  numerous  as 
the  Congregational  organizations. 

Into  the  building  of  a  state  go  always  the  characters 
of  those  men  who  are  most  prominent  in  its  history,  — 
as  governors,  judges,  legislators,  or  men  of  business.  A 
glance  at  some  whose  names  are  bound  up  with  the  story 
of  the  institutions,  political  and  commercial,  which  they 
have  builded,  will  serve  to  illustrate  what  has  gone  be- 
fore as  to  the  influence  exerted  by  New  England  upon 
this  Western  state. 

Of  the  eighteen  governors  of  Wisconsin  four  were 
born  in  Connecticut,  one  in  Massachusetts ;  another  was 
of  Connecticut  parentage,  and  one  of  Massachusetts 
stock,  while  yet  another  came  of  Puritan  ancestry.^  Two 
Vermont  men  have  been  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  state,  four  more  have  been  circuit  judges,  as  have 
three  Maine  emigrants  and  one  from  Massachusetts. 
There  have  been  eleven  United  States  senators,  —  four 
from  Vermont,  and  one  from  Maine,  while  two  came 
of  New  England  stock.    The  proneness  of  the  Ver- 

1  Rev.  L.  D.  Mears,  "  Hist.  Address,"  in  Services  at  the  Fiftieth  Anniver- 
sary  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Beloit,  Wis.,  pp.  27,  28. 

2  Usher,  Puritan  Influence  in  Wisconsin,  121, 122. 


246  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

monter  to  go  into  politics  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that 
every  man  of  prominence  connected  with  the  state  or- 
g^anization  of  the  Republican  party  in  1880  in  Wiscon- 
sin was  a  Vermonter,  from  Senator  Spooner  down.  Six 
state  superintendents  of  schools  have  been  either  New 
England  men  or  the  children  of  such  parents.  New 
Englanders  built  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul 
Railroad,  as  they  did  three  others  in  the  state.*  From 
the  beginning  of  Wisconsin's  history  as  a  state,  its  in- 
stitutions "  have  been  dominated  by  Americans  of  the 
Puritan  seed."^ 

Into  the  making  of  Wisconsin,  then,  has  gone  much 
of  New  England  practice  and  tradition,  part  of  it 
brought  directly  from  the  old  states  on  the  coast,  more 
of  it  from  western  New  York,  but  all  of  it  a  Puritan 
heritage,  tempered  by  frontier  and  wilderness  conditions. 
The  schools,  the  churches,  the  local  institutions  of  the 
state  all  show  their  origin,  whether  they  were  copied 
directly  from  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut,  or  had  been 
altered  in  New  York  or  Michigan  on  their  way  to  shape 
another  commonwealth  planned  on  the  same  lines.  The 
great  immigrations  of  foreigners  have  not  changed 
the  fundamental  institutions  of  the  state,  though  they 
have  given  a  different  character  to  its  population.  There 
never  can  be  erased  the  sturdy  independence,  the  demo- 
cratic spirit,  the  deep  moral  purpose  of  the  pioneers 

*  Usher,  Puritan  Influence  in  Wisconsin,  123-126.  Two  are  great  sys- 
tems,—  the  Wisconsin  Central,  the  Omaha  system  ;  while  a  third  is  the 
Green  Bay  R.  R.  The  president  of  the  Milwaukee  and  Mississippi  R.  R. 
was  a  native  of  Vermont,  the  manager  of  the  C,  M.  &  St.  P.  R.  R.  was 
a  New  Hampshire  boy. 

Ibid.f  127.    See  map  opposite,  and  frontispiece. 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       247 

who  made  Wisconsin  in  its  early  years  a  modified  New 
England. 

One  feels  in  passing  through  the  Michigan  and  Wis- 
consin towns  the  kinship  of  the  two  states  to  each  other, 
to  northern  Illinois,  to  northern  Ohio,  and  to  western 
New  York ;  that  kinship  has  come,  it  is  believed,  through 
their  common  heritage  of  ideals  and  ideas,  drawn  from 
the  same  source,  —  the  home  of  the  Puritans.  Settled 
by  the  same  stock,  built  by  the  same  sort  of  pioneers, 
their  resemblance  to  each  other  is  no  accident,  no  hap- 
hazard similarity.  They  represent  a  New  England  whose 
history  is  shaped  and  moulded  on  the  lines  of  the  old. 
New  England  history  is  incomplete  when  it  takes  up  the 
story  of  but  six  states ;  it  will  be  finished  only  when  it 
tells  the  tale  of  a  greater  New  England  extended  to  the 
Mississippi.^ 

1  Nor  does  it  stop  with  the  Mississippi.  During  the  later  years  of  this 
study,  from  about  1840  to  1865,  people  from  New  England  were  moving 
in  a  steady  stream  (and  an  increasingly  large  one)  to  Minnesota,  Iowa, 
Kansas,  Oregon,  and  Washington.  Worthington,  Minnesota,  was  settled 
by  a  colony  somewhat  like  those  we  have  examined ;  Lawrence,  Kansas, 
is  a  New  England  town,  as  is  Grinnell,  Iowa.  Far  out  in  the  Willamette 
Valley  is  Whitman  College,  Congregational  to  the  core.  Only  with  a  study 
of  emigration  to  the  Pacific  Coast  can  the  story  of  "  greater  New  Eng- 
land "  be  complete. 


248  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

For  Michigan,  the  great  source  of  iDformation  is  the  Pioneer  Collections, 
issued  by  the  Pioneer  Society  of  Michigan  (34  vols.,  Lansing,  1877-1906). 
The  series  is  admirably  edited,  and  contains  all  sorts  of  information,  — 
biographical,  historical,  and  statistical.  To  supplement  the  biographical 
material  found  in  these  collections,  there  is  a  large  volume  of  a  popular 
character  in  a  series  called  "American  Biographies,"  —  Representative 
Men  of  Michigan  (Cincinnati,  1878).  The  sketches  given  here  afford  a 
means  of  identifying  men  of  New  England  stock. 

There  are  four  general  histories  of  Michigan  :  James  V.  Campbell  has 
given  the  political  phase  especial  prominence  in  the  Outlines  of  the  Politi- 
cal History  of  Michigan  (Detroit,  1876)  ;  there  are  many  anecdotes  and 
local  sketches  in  Silas  Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan  (Detroit, 
1884)  ;  a  good  brief  history  is  in  the  American  Commonwealth  Series,  by 
Judge  T.  M.  Cooley,  entitled  Michigan  ;  and  lastly,  the  work  of  J.  H. 
Lanman,  History  of  Michigan  (New  York,  1839)  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes. 

Some  of  the  better  county  histories  are  as  follows  :  Samuel  W.  Durant, 
History  of  Ingham  and  Eaton  Counties  (Philadelphia,  1880)  ;  Crisfield 
Johnson,  History  of  Hillsdale  County  (Philadelphia,  1879) ;  T.  E.  Wing, 
editor.  History  of  Monroe  County  (New  York,  1890)  ;  and  those  for  whom 
no  one  assumes  the  sponsorship,  —  History  of  Berrien  and  Van  Buren 
Counties,  History  of  St.  Clair  County,  and  History  of  Washtenaw  County. 

Professor  A.  C.  McLaughlin  prepared  the  History  of  Higher  Education 
in  Michigan,  Circular  no.  4  in  a  series  for  the  Bureau  of  Education  at 
Washington  dealing  with  the  subject  in  various  states.  Edward  W.  M. 
Bemis  prepared  a  study  on  Local  Government  in  Michigan  and  the  North- 
west, in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  "  Studies  in  History  and  Political 
Science,"  March,  1883.  It  is  not  so  thorough  as  Dr.  Shaw's  study  in  the 
same  series  on  Illinois. 

For  Wisconsin,  there  is  a  series  corresponding  to  the  Michigan  Pioneer 
Society  Collections,  issued  by  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin, 
and  called  the  Collections  of  the  Wisco7isin  State  Historical  Society  (18  vols., 
Madison,  1855-1908).  The  editing  here  is  admirable.  There  are  also 
Proceedings  of  the  Society,  in  12  vols.,  Madison,  1875-1908,  and  Reports 
(1875-1908,  101  vols.),  containing  many  short  articles  of  value.  H.  A. 
Tenney  and  David  Atwood  have  done  signal  service  in  preparing  the 
Memorial  Record  of  the  Fathers  of  Wisconsin. 

In  county  histories,  many  were  used  for  the  maps  which  cannot  be 


THE  NEW  ENGLANDERS  AS  STATE  BUILDERS       249 

cited  here  ;  but  Miss  H.  M.  Bingham's  History  of  Green  County  (Milwau- 
kee, 1877)  and  C.  W.  Butterfield's  edition  of  a  History  of  Racine  and 
Kenosha  Counties  (Chicago,  1879)  proved  especially  helpful.  W.  H.  C. 
Folsom's  Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest  (St.  Paul,  1888)  gives  the  experiences 
of  an  early  settler. 

There  are  several  histories  of  individual  churches  which  are  of  value  : 
Rev.  R.  L.  Cheney  in  "The  Charter  Members,"  bound  in  a  memorial 
of  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Old  Blake^s  Prairie  Church  ;  F.  J.  Lamb, 
"  Former  Pastors  of  the  Church,"  in  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  First 
Congregational  Church  of  Madison;  Rev.  L.  D.  Mears,  "  Historical  Ad- 
dress "  in  Services  at  (he  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church  of  Beloit ;  and  S.  P.  Wilder,  "  History,"  in  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary 
of  the  First  Congregational  Church  ofJanesville  —  all  these  are  suggestive. 

These  are  but  a  few  books  and  pamphlets  of  the  vast  collection  of 
material  for  Western  history  stored  in  the  library  of  the  State  Historical 
Society  of  Wisconsin  at  Madison. 

Finally,  reference  ought  to  be  made  to  the  volumes  prepared  by  the 
directors  of  the  United  States  Census  for  1870  (which  contain  statistics 
of  1790  to  1870  inclusive),  1880,  1890,  and  1900,  where  figures  and  maps 
are  to  be  found.  The  Blue  Books  of  various  states  give  information  as  to 
prominent  men  in  politics  and  public  life. 


CHAPTER  X 

TWO      CENTURIES     AND     A     HALF     OF     NEW      ENGLAND 
PIONEERING 

1620-1865 

The  westward  march  of  the  Puritan  and  his  descend- 
ants has  now  been  traced  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  —  not  always  completely,  sometimes  merely  in 
broad  outline ;  but  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  show 
where  New  England  men  and  women  have  gone  to  plant 
towns,  to  build  states,  to  help  weld  the  American  nation/ 
Nor  has  the  purely  formal  side  of  the  actual  movement 
of  population  alone  been  studied;  the  presence  of  a 
number  of  New  England  people  in  New  Jersey  or  in 
Wisconsin  would  of  itself  mean  nothing.  Wherever 
Puritan  blood  has  gone,  Puritan  traditions  have  been 
carried,  —  that  is  the  essential  thing  to  note.  There- 
fore, the  influence  these  transplanted  Englishmen  have 
exerted,  the  institutions  they  have  wrought,  the  char- 
acter ingrained  by  inheritance  and  altered  by  environ- 
ment which  differentiates  them  from  any  other  element 
in  the  United  States,  —  all  these  are  material  for  the 
student  who  notes  the  growth  of  the  American  nation 
from  its  small  beginnings  to  its  stature  to-day. 

As  the  frontier  has  moved  to  the  West,  so  the  Puritan 
has  marched,  his  log  cabin  marking  for  two  centuries 

*  See  frontispiece,  for  New  England  settlement  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River  to  1860. 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING     251 

the  edge  of  civilization.  At  first  his  villages  were  but 
fishing  or  farming  hamlets,  scattered  along  the  Atlantic 
coast;  by  degrees,  actuated  by  a  desire  to  better  his 
material  condition  through  enlarged  farms  or  more  ex- 
tended fur-trade  with  the  Indians,  or  by  unrest  which 
social,  religious,  or  political  restraint  produced,  the  set- 
tler moved  inland  with  his  family  and  his  neighbors. 
Certain  conditions  bound  him  down  in  his  choice  of  a 
new  home :  he  must  build  his  cabin  near  a  river,  for  the 
water-courses  supplied  the  only  means  of  transportation 
for  himself  and  his  goods ;  he  must  seek  out  the  best 
lands  available,  and  these  were,  so  far  as  New  England 
was  concerned,  the  intervale  lands  along  the  rivers; 
lastly,  he  must  (in  so  far  as  he  could)  keep  out  of  the 
way  of  hostile  Indians.  Hence  the  first  settlements  were 
stretched  in  a  reasonably  compact  manner  along  the 
coast,  and  up  the  larger  water-courses. 

Familiarity  with  frontier  conditions  bred  daring  and 
unrest ;  the  men  and  the  women  who  had  been  pioneers 
once  were  not  afraid  to  brave  the  wilderness  again,  and 
consequently  dissatisfaction  with  the  iron  rule  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  might  send  one  hundred  families  to  the 
Connecticut  River,  or  a  church  quarrel  might  cause 
thirty  more  to  remove  to  Cape  Cod.  It  was  this  fear- 
lessness (combined,  to  be  sure,  with  other  motives)  which 
made  it  possible  for  emigrants  to  betake  themselves  to 
Newark  and  other  New  Jersey  towns  as  well  as  to  those 
upon  Long  Island. 

From  1660  down  to  the  years  just  preceding  the 
Revolution,  expansion  radiated  from  the  centres  estab- 
lished in  the  forty  years  preceding  the  Restoration. 


252  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Inland  from  the  coast,  following  up  the  rivers,  keeping 
close  together  at  times  when  the  French  and  Indians 
threatened  every  isolated  settlement,  new  farms  were 
laid  out  and  new  towns  planted.  When  all  the  best  land 
had  been  taken,  later  comers  had  to  be  content  with 
poorer  tracts,  till  all  was  occupied.  Now  and  then  the 
frontier  line  was  thrust  back  by  war,  but  it  advanced 
beyond  its  former  limit  when  peace  was  restored,  and 
the  movement  after  the  peace  of  Utrecht  was  upon  the 
whole  a  steady  advance.  It  was  the  poorer  quality  of 
the  land  that  kept  central  Massachusetts  a  wilderness 
long  after  the  Connecticut  valley  was  well  peopled ;  it 
was  the  insecurity  attendant  upon  a  disputed  title  that 
made  the  prospective  settler  pass  by  the  lower  counties 
of  Vermont  and  build  his  log  cabin  farther  north. 
For  the  New  England  pioneer  was  a  hard-headed 
man  of  business ;  if  he  moved  to  better  his  condition, 
he  did  not  mean  to  be  balked  in  his  purpose  by  poor 
judgment  at  the  beginning.  By  1770  all  the  best  land 
had  been  occupied  in  the  three  Southern  colonies,  the 
lower  parts  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  were  filled 
with  towns,  and  the  frontier  line  was  being  pushed  back 
from  southern  Vermont;  while  Long  Island  and  New 
Jersey,  as  well  as  several  counties  on  either  side  of  the 
Hudson  Kiver  in  New  York,  had  received  the  overflow 
from  New  England. 

The  impending  struggle  between  the  mother  country 
and  the  colonies  did  not  trouble  the  pioneer ;  his  wan- 
derings were  checked  only  by  actual  hostilities.  Between 
1760  and  1775  three  plans  for  emigration  were  formu- 
lated, and  two  were  carried  out.  The  first  was  the  great 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING    253 

movement  to  the  Wyoming  country  in  northwestern 
Pennsylvania, — a  scheme  which  drew  hundreds  of  set- 
tlers from  Connecticut  to  the  new  town  of  Westmore- 
land. The  second  was  the  removal  of  many  Nantucket 
Quakers  to  Guilford  County,  North  Carolina,  —  an 
instance  of  a  search  for  good  land  and  congenial  reli- 
gious surroundings.^  The  third  was  the  ill-fated  plan 
for  the  Phineas  Lyman  colony  near  Natchez,  in  which 
at  least  four  hundred  Connecticut  famiUes  were  inter- 
ested, for  that  number  removed  to  the  Mississippi  coun- 
try; with  the  opening  of  the  war,  many  returned  to 
their  old  homes,  while  others  sought  new  ones  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  South.  Certainly  the  New  Englander 
was  by  this  time  a  seasoned  frontiersman,  whom  no 
wilderness  could  daunt. 

With  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  the  flood  of  emi- 
gration, pent  up  during  the  war,  rushed  forth,  this  time 
to  central  and  western  New  York,  to  northern  and 
western  Pennsylvania,  and  to  southern  Ohio,  as  well  as 
to  the  three  northern  New  England  States.  Now  new 
factors  altered  the  situation,  for  the  lands  to  the  west 
were  unlike  those  of  the  coast  states,  and  the  product 
of  a  year's  labor  seemed  little  short  of  marvelous  to 
those  who  had  wrung  but  a  pittance  from  the  stony 
soil  of  New  England.  Not  only  did  young  men  move, 
but  older  ones  as  well,  lured  on  by  the  tales  of  return- 
ing travelers,  by  the  fascinating  prospect  of  wealth  in 
the  West,  and  often  also  by  the  innate  unrest  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon.    Hardy  emigrants  swarmed  from  every 

*  Many  Pennsylvania  Quakers  were  moving  down  the  Piedmont  plateau 
to  the  uplands  of  North  Carolina  at  this  time. 


254  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

New  England  state  to  the  westward,  the  less  venture- 
some ones  moving  to  the  North, — to  Vermont,  Maine, 
and  New  Hampshire. 

In  Ohio  the  soldier  found  a  new  home  upon  the  gov- 
ernment bounty  lands,  and  Revolutionary  officers,  as 
well  as  men  of  the  line,  established  homes  at  Marietta. 
To  the  north  lay  the  "  Western  Reserve,"  and  thither 
flocked  thousands  of  settlers  to  build  a  new  Connecticut 
upon  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie.  Farther  out,  the  "squat- 
ter "  built  his  home,  waiting  for  the  land  to  be  brought 
into  the  market,  that  he  might  purchase  a  quarter-section 
of  the  new  government  tracts  which  the  states  had  each 
ceded  for  the  welfare  of  all.  The  possession  by  the 
general  government  of  a  seemingly  inexhaustible  supply 
of  cheap  and  fertile  land  to  the  west  gave  an  impetus 
to  emigration  unparalleled  in  American  history  up  to 
that  time. 

,  From  1781  until  1812  the  movement  of  population 
from  New  England  continued  in  these  channels.  After 
the  second  war  with  Great  Britain,  the  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  the  Puritans  went  farther  West,  into  the  north- 
ern parts  of  Indiana  and  Illinois.  Indiana  was  never  a 
favorite  stopping-place  for  the  New  Englanders,  for  the 
Southern  element  was  strong  here,  and  the  Virginian 
or  Kentuckian  was  apt  to  confuse  the  shrewd,  unscru- 
pulous "Yankee"  peddler  of  cheap  clocks  with  the 
substantial  Connecticut  farmer,  and  to  treat  the  two 
alike.  This  same  hostility  between  the  New  England 
toilers  of  a  frontier  line  working  down  from  the  North 
and  the  Southern  farmers  building  up  from  the  South 
is  found  in  Illinois;  it  grew  until  the  fourteen  northern 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING    255 

counties  were  eager  to  secede  to  Wisconsin  that  they 
might  affiliate  with  their  own  kind.  From  1816  until 
1840  the  movement  of  emigrants  into  Indiana  took  place, 
that  into  Illinois  from  about  1825  until  1850. 

In  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  from  about  1830 
until  1837,  the  New  Englanders  were  clearing  for  them- 
selves new  homes  north  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois, 
in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin.  Working  into  the  interior 
from  the  southeast  corner  of  each  of  these  states,  for  a 
few  years  the  growth  of  population  in  all  of  what  had 
been  the  Northwest  Territory  went  on  at  once ;  after 
1840  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  received  most  of  the  new- 
comers. Farther  to  the  west,  across  the  Mississippi,  New 
England  was  contributing  hundreds  of  families  to  Iowa 
and  Minnesota,  while  a  few  were  already  making  their 
way  across  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  Washington  and  Oregon. 

Such  has  been  the  actual  movement  of  settlement  dur- 
ing these  two  centuries.  What  has  been  the  character 
of  the  emigration  ?^he  emigrants  have  betaken  them- 
selves to  new  homes  in  three  ways :  by  single  families, 
by  groups  of  two  or  more  households,  and  by  whole 
colonies.  When  families  have  gone  singly,  —  and  this 
was  rarely  the  method  for  the  first  half -century,  and 
has  never  been  the  most  popular  one,  — their  influence 
has  been  exerted  only  by  an  especially  strong  personal- 
ity here  and  there  ;  the  rest  have  been  lost  in  some  little 
town  on  the  Wabash  or  the  Fox.  Where  two  or  three 
households  have  gone  together  to  build  cabins  in  the 
same  neighborhood,  there  New  England  tradition  has 
been  preserved,  and  the  influence  of  Puritan  institutions 


256  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

has  made  itself  felt ;  state-building  in  the  West  has  been 
the  work  of  these  little  bands  toiling  with  their  neigh- 
bors from  other  parts  of  the  United  States.  But  when 
a  whole  church  or  a  colony  has  moved  out  to  plant  a 
new  town,  there  the  character  of  the  settlement  has 
remained  longest  unchanged,  and  its  citizens  have  con- 
structed what  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  veritable 
New  England  town,  —  church,  school,  and  often  a  col- 
lege,— far  from  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut,  in  the 
heart  of  New  York  or  New  Jersey,  or  in  an  oak  clear- 
ing of  Michigan  or  Wisconsin.  There  are  many  of  these 
towns  scattered  over  the  states  north  of  the  Ohio  and 
its  tributaries ;  some  of  them,  like  Kirkland,  Granville, 
Oberlin,  Yermontville,  Eockford,  and  Beloit  have  been 
mentioned,  but  many  more  have  a  more  obscure  story 
not  written  as  yet.  In  a  number  of  these  towns  the  old 
tendency  to  proceed  in  an  orderly  and  law-abiding  fash- 
ion has  led  to  the  drawing  up  of  a  compact  or  a  consti- 
tution closely  resembling  those  under  which  the  founders 
of  Plymouth,  Springfield,  and  many  other  towns  agreed 
to  live  until  some  regularly  constituted  government 
should  be  set  over  them.  Anglo-Saxon  conservatism  has 
shown  itself  very  strongly  in  the  survival  of  the  written 
compact. 

When  these  families  or  colonies  made  up  their  minds 
to  move,  they  did  not  set  out  with  any  vague  notion  of 
their  destination ;  they  knew  exactly  where  they  were 
going,  for  the  way  had  been  traveled  before  their  de- 
parture, and  usually  the  site  for  their  future  homes  al- 
ready chosen.  Certain  states  and  parts  of  states  have 
had  a  fascination  for  the  Connecticut  man,  still  others 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING    257 

for  the  pioneer  from  Massachusetts,  and  yet  another  for 
the  Vermont  emigrant/  Connecticut  settlers  have  moved 
in  largest  numbers  to  Long  Island,  New  Jersey,  and 
southern  New  York  east  of  the  Hudson ;  they  have  fol- 
lowed the  Housatonic  into  western  Massachusetts,  the 
Connecticut  into  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont ;  turn- 
ing their  faces  westward,  they  have  moved  by  hundreds 
into  northwestern  Pennsylvania  and  into  central  and 
western  New  York ;  by  thousands  they  have  emigrated 
to  their  own  Western  Reserve  and  to  Michigan.  Far 
from  remaining  in  the  "  land  of  steady  habits,"  the 
former  inhabitants  of  Connecticut  towns  are  found  from 
one  end  of  the  United  States  to  the  other.^ 

*  No  reason  can  be  assigned  for  this,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  save 
the  desire  to  live  in  the  neighborhood  of  other  pioneers  from  the  same 
region  in  the  East.  No  particular  kind  of  soil  seems  to  attract  the  Ver- 
monter  any  more  than  the  Massachusetts  man  ;  no  sort  of  business  seems 
to  draw  one  here  and  another  there.  Stories  told  by  an  emigrant  who  has 
gone  back  to  visit  the  old  home  on  the  coast  have  led  again  and  again  to 
removals  to  the  region  described  by  the  wanderer.  The  tendency  to  set- 
tle together  is  there,  —  just  why,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

*  B.  C.  Steiner,  in  his  History  of  Guilford,  Connecticut,  has  made  an 
interesting  and  valuable  study  of  the  movement  of  emigrants  from  that 
one  town.  Beginning  with  the  first  removals  to  Branford  in  1644,  he 
traces  settlers  in  1663-64  to  KilHngworth,  to  Saybrook,  and  to  Newark, 
New  Jersey  ;  in  1700,  to  Durham  ;  in  the  next  quarter-century,  to  Mid- 
dlefield  and  Westfield  ;  about  1750,  to  Litchfield,  Goshen,  Salisbury,  and 
Canaan.  Between  1760  and  the  end  of  the  Revolution,  he  has  found  the 
movement  taking  a  turn  northward,  to  settle  Richmond  and  Stockbridge 
in  western  Massachusetts,  to  begin  Guilford,  Vermont,  and  to  fill  up 
Chittenden  County  in  the  same  state.  After  the  Revolution,  others  went 
to  Claremont  and  Charlestown,  New  Hampshire,  and  to  Greenville,  New 
York.  Early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  some  settled  at  Paris,  Westmore- 
land, and  Verona  in  New  York,  in  the  Connecticut  Western  Reserve,  in 
other  parts  of  Ohio,  and,  about  1830,  at  Fairfield  and  other  Illinois  towns. 
This  close  study  simply  bears  out  the  deductions  made  above  for  the 


268  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Massachusetts  has  sent  pioneers  to  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Vermont,  Ohio,  Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wiscon- 
sin; almost  none  to  Pennsylvania  and  Indiana/   Rhode 

whole  state.  See  B.  C.  Steiner,  History  of  Guilford,  139.  E.  D.  Larned's 
Hist,  of  Windham  County,  ii,  586,  587,  gives  Wyoming,  Vermont,  New 
Hampshire,  western  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Ohio,  and  the  territories 
westward  as  the  destinations  of  emigrants  from  that  county,  adding  to  the 
list  a  few  who  have  gone  to  Maryland,  North  Carolina,  and  New  Orleans. 
Bowen's  Woodstock,  p.  58,  gives  the  destination  of  former  inhabitants  of 
Woodstock  as  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Ohio  ;  and  adds  that  "  nowadays,  nearly  every  state  has  representatives  of 
this  town."  F.  Atwater  (Hist,  of  Plymouth,  Conn.,  437)  gives  descendants 
from  that  town  who  live  in  Tecumseh,  Nebraska,  and  in  McGregor,  Iowa. 
*  A  celebration  held  in  Granville,  Massachusetts,  in  1845,  gave  an  op- 
portunity for  the  preparation  of  statistics  as  to  the  residence  of  emigrants 
from  Granville,  living  in  that  year :  286  emigrants  were  distributed  as 
follows  :  — 

Ohio  (in  27  towns,  mostly  in  northern  Ohio) 67 

New  York  (in  27  towns,  in  all  parts  of  the  state)  ....  67 
Massachusetts  (in  11  towns,  mostly  in  the  western  part)  .  57 
Connecticut  (in  12  towns,  mostly  in  the  northwestern  part)     36 

Illinois  (in  7  towns,  in  the  northern  part) 11 

Wisconsin  (in  4  towns)       6 

Michigan  (in  4  towns) 5 

Indiana  (in  2  towns) 4 

Vermont .      4 

Pennsylvania .     •      3 

Khode  Island 3 

Louisiana 3 

Iowa 3 

New  Jersey •      3 

Florida 2 

Alabama 2 

Missouri 2 

New  Hampshire 1 

District  of  Columbia 1 

South  America 1 

See  Granville  Jubilee,  127-135. 

Weymouth  has  sent  representatives  just  as  indicated   in  the  text 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING    259 

Island  is  represented  in  all  the  states,  but  not  by  great 
numbers  anywhere/  Maine  settlers  have  moved  least  of 
all,  probably  because  there  have  always  been  vacant 
lands  in  their  own  state,  at  low  prices,  and  within  easy 
distance.^  New  Hampshire  has  sent  most  of  her  emi- 
grants to  New  York,  but  many  have  gone  to  Ohio  and 
to  Illinois  also.^  Vermont  people,  mostly  descendants 
from  Connecticut  stock,  have  shown  the  same  migratory 
spirit  as  their  ancestors,  and  have  been  the  great  "  mov- 
ers"; in  New  York  they  are  more  numerous  than  in  any 
other  state,  but  they  are  represented  in  goodly  numbers 
in  Ohio,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin/  The  great 
exodus  from  New  York  into  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan, 
and  Wisconsin,  is  probably  largely  the  movement  of 
New  England  stock,  in  the  second  or  third  generation. 
What  factors  have  operated  to  send  inhabitants  to 
the  frontier  ?  Over  and  over  again  the  search  for  cheap 
and  fertile  land  has  been  most  potent,  for  until  after 
the  Revolution  the  chief  business  of  all  the  colonial  in- 
habitants save  those  in  the  coast  towns  was  connected 
in  some  way  with  agriculture.  When  the  best  land  in 
New  England  had  been  taken,  it  became  necessary  to 

above.  See  Gilbert  Nasb,  « Weymouth,"  in  Hist,  of  Norfolk  Co.,  566. 
Roxbury  is  said  to  have  been  the  mother  of  fifteen  towns  in  the  United 
States.    See  Bowen,  Woodstock,  11. 

^  See  Census  Reports  for  1850  and  1860,  in  Appendix  B.  Note  the  small 
number  for  New  Jersey,  Indiana,  and  Wisconsin. 

2  Ibid.  Note  the  small  number  for  Indiana  and  Michigan. 

3  Ibid. 

*  Ibid.  Note  that  Vermont  stands  third  in  number  of  settlers  that 
New  England  contributed  to  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio  ;  first  in 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin.  See,  also,  settlement  of  Ver- 
monters  in  Wisconsin  by  counties,  in  Appendix  C. 


260  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

remove  to  some  more  productive  region,  or  else  to 
change  one's  occupation,  —  a  thing  not  so  easy  of 
accomplishment  a  hundred  years  ago  as  it  is  to-day. 
Letters  sent  back  by  a  Hugh  White,  telling  of  the  mar- 
velous yield  of  his  farm  in  central  New  York,  proved 
irresistible  to  his  former  Connecticut  neighbors,  and 
out  to  Whitesboro  and  its  vicinity  they  moved,  that 
they,  too,  might  profit  by  the  extraordinary  prodigality 
of  nature.  The  prairies  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  were 
far  preferable  to  a  stony,  hilly  patch  of  ground  in  the 
"  Granite  State,"  when  once  their  attractions  had  been 
set  forth  in  gazetteer  and  guide-book.*  To  obtain  a 
farm  of  a  goodly  size,  —  that  has  been  the  object  of  the 
majority  of  emigrants  from  the  beginning. 

Inseparably  connected  with  the  search  for  land  there 
has  often  been  discontent  with  existing  conditions, 
—  social,  economic,  religious,  and  political.  When  a 
church  quarrel  arose,  what  need  was  there  to  yield  or 
to  compromise,  when  the  disgruntled  minority  could 
have  its  will  in  another  region  not  far  away?  There 
was  no  necessity  for  yielding  to  the  will  of  a  majority 
with  which  one  did  not  agree  when  wide  stretches  of 
unoccupied  land  were  inviting  settlers  who  could  do  as 
they  pleased.  With  this  assurance,  excessive  independ- 
ence and  assertive  individuality  needed  no  curb,  for 
there  was  room  for  all  ideas,  political  and  social.  The 
contented,  the   prosperous,   the   conservative,  —  these 

1  The  number  of  these  guide-books  and  gazetteers,  such  as  Peck's, 
which  were  issued  from  1830  to  1850  is  astonishing,  and  their  influence 
in  attracting  settlers  to  the  West  must  have  been  great.  Every  detail  of 
expense  by  canal,  steamboat,  and  stage  is  there,  with  minute  descriptions 
of  infant  settlements  in  need  of  farmers  and  merchants. 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING    261 

remained  in  the  old  town ;  the  discontented,  the  poor, 
the  radical,  —  all  such  elements  moved  to  the  frontier. ; 
Whether  the  discontent  was  for  social,  political,  or 
religious  conditions,  the  same  idea  underlay  it  all ;  and 
that  idea  was  that  greater  advantages  might  be  gained 
for  one's  self  and  for  one's  children  in  the  new  home  than 
in  the  old.  Ambitious  in  a  land  where  they  saw  their  work 
grow  under  their  hands,  it  was  but  natural  that  the  goal 
for  the  pioneers  should  be  the  gaining  of  wealth  which 
should  place  their  children  at  least  one  round  farther 
up  on  the  social  ladder  than  their  fathers  had  been. 
Yet  even  in  their  ambition,  the  frontiersmen  from  New 
England  have  not  been  unmindful  of  the  moral  and 
religious  side  of  life,  for  that  has  always  been  most 
firmly  ingrained  and  most  thoroughly  characteristic  of 
the  Puritan  and  his  descendants.  Therefore,  the  emi- 
grants carried  with  them  their  school,  their  church,  and 
their  town-meeting ;  certain  that  their  own  institutions 
were  best,  backed  by  their  conviction  of  their  own  keen- 
ness of  judgment,  aided  by  the  conservatism  which 
clings  to  what  it  knows  by  experience  is  good,  they 
insisted  upon  the  adoption  of  their  traditional  institu- 
tions in  the  newer  states  of  the  West.  In  the  adoption, 
though,  the  church,  the  school,  and  the  town-meeting 
must  needs  undergo  change;  the  church  must  become 
more  liberal,  it  must  take  on  the  Presbyterian  form  if 
that  would  insure  its  growth ;  it  must  be  divorced  from 
politics,  since  one  reason  for  the  removal  to  the  frontier 
had  often  been  the  union  of  church  and  state  upon  the 
coast.  Far  from  escaping  from  the  majority  rule,  the 
pioneer  had  become  subject  to  it  anew;  but  it  was 


i 


262  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

now  his  majority,  and  he  could  afford  to  yield  to  gain 
his  ends.  The  school  had  to  change  also.  Separation  of 
the  sexes  had  been  the  rule  in  New  England ;  coeduca- 
tion became  the  habit  of  the  West.  Partly  due  to  lack 
of  funds,  partly  perhaps  owing  to  the  intense  feeling  of 
equality  not  only  between  man  and  man,  but  between 
man  and  woman,  the  coeducational  plan  became  the  cus- 
tom for  the  Western  States.  It  was  not  always  adopted 
willingly,  for  conservatism  and  tradition  in  such  matters 
die  hard ;  but  in  the  end  a  shrewd  business  sense  dic- 
tated the  policy,  and  it  won.^ 

Such  are  some  phases  of  the  influence  of  the  older 
civilization  upon  the  new;  but  there  has  been  also  a 
reaction  whereby  the  older  civilization  has  in  its  turn 
been  altered  by  the  new  which  it  had  helped  to  shape. 
The  frontier  demanded  recognition ;  and  it  had  its  way. 
Beginning  with  insignificant  quarrels  between  settlers 
and  non-resident  proprietors,  wh^re  the  former  demanded 
the  advantages  of  roads  and  bridges  which  they  had 
enjoyed  in  the  older  towns  and  were  now  too  poor  to 

*  In  1842  the  question  of  the  separation  of  the  sexes  in  the  public 
schools  arose  in  Rochester,  New  York.  It  was  argued  that  the  old  plan 
of  having  boys  and  girls  go  to  separate  schools  interfered  with  grading 
and  classifying  pupils,  and  required  an  unnecessary  number  of  instructors. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  prejudice  against  "mixed  schools  "  was  strong 
among  the  New  England  element  which  made  up  the  majority  of  Roches- 
ter inhabitants.  In  1849-50  the  old  district  system  was  abolished,  and  all 
educational  matters  were,  by  the  new  city  charter,  left  to  the  common 
council.  An  ordinance  was  passed  requiring  that  all  pupils  be  seated, 
classified,  and  taught  without  regard  to  sex.  Quite  a  number  of  pupils  were 
withdrawn  from  school,  but  after  a  year  or  two  discussion  ceased,  and  the 
ordinance  was  generally  accepted.  See  Ellis,  "  Hist,  of  Rochester  Public 
Schools,"  in  Pub.  of  Roch.  Hist,  Soc.y  i,  74,  75.  Neither  the  University  of 
Wisconsin  nor  that  of  Michigan  was  made  coeducational  without  a  struggle. 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING     263 

provide  for  themselves,  the  divergence  of  views  grew 
wider.  In  the  matter  of  roads  and  bridges,  it  seemed  to 
the  pioneer  that  every  property  owner  should  help  in 
paying  for  public  works,  and  that  the  whole  expense 
should  not  be  borne  by  the  resident  farmer.  He  com- 
plained first  to  the  proprietors,  then  to  the  legislature ; 
and  he  frequently  won  his  case.* 

Going  beyond  the  confines  of  a  single  town,  the 
whole  frontier  sometimes  rose  in  what  it  considered 
righteous  indignation  against  a  conservative  and  arro- 
gant coast  population.  The  story  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Massachusetts  constitution  will  illustrate  such  a  contest.^ 
In  1778-79  the  county  of  Berkshire,  which  had  been  set- 
tled mostly  from  Connecticut  towns,  was  in  almost  open 
rebellion  against  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  on  the 
matter  of  admitting  the  authority  of  the  General  Court 
and  the  judicial  courts  as  well.  The  question  had  arisen 
over  the  adoption  of  a  constitution,  and  "  for  other  rea- 
sons to  be  enumerated,"  it  was  argued  that  the  laws  of 
the  state  ought  not  to  operate  in  that  town.^  Richmond 

*  See  the  case  of  Westminster  settlers  vs.  proprietors,  given  by  Hay- 
wood, "  Westminster,"  in  Hist,  of  Worcester  Co.y  ii,  1148.  Also  complaint 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Deering,  New  Hampshire,  against  proprietors  who 
refused  to  help  build  a  meeting-house  and  pay  for  a  lot  for  the  minister. 
See  Hammond,  Town  Papers,  xi,  495.  Also,  the  case  of  Dorchester,  in  ibid., 
xi,  601.  Also  the  case  brought  before  the  legislature  for  settlement  of  a 
dispute  between  proprietors  and  settlers  in  Bartlett.  See  ibid.,  xi,  161, 162. 

2  The  material  for  this  paragraph  has  been  obtained  from  a  manuscript 
thesis,  **  The  Struggle  for  the  Constitution  in  Massachusetts,"  by  Dr.  F.  E. 
Haynes,  in  the  Harvard  College  Library,  pp.  165-183. 

8  Great  Barrington  Tovm  Records,  Nov.  16,  1778,  cited  by  Dr.  Haynes, 
166.  The  method  of  representation  was  considered  defective,  and  the 
western  towns,  tenacious  of  the  rights  they  believed  were  theirs,  protested 
thus  in  typical  frontier  fashion. 


264  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

protested  in  no  uncertain  way  against  laws  established 
on  what  was  considered  an  uncertain  basis.^  Lenox 
voted  that  there  was  in  Massachusetts  no  constitution 
which  controlled  the  inhabitants  of  that  town,  and  pe- 
titioned the  General  Court  to  be  allowed  to  be  set  off  to 
be  a  part  of  a  neighboring  state.^  The  northern  towns 
of  the  county  were  the  most  hostile  to  the  General 
Court ;  coercion  would  probably  have  been  fatal  to  any 
future  harmony  for  the  new  state,  and  would  perhaps 
have  meant  dismemberment.^  From  1774  to  1780  the 
civil  authority  was  really  helpless  as  far  as  Berkshire 
County  was  concerned,  the  real  power  being  exercised 
by  each  town  without  regard  to  its  neighbors.  In  1778 
the  courts  were  closed,  while  Richmond  turned  over  the 
punishment  of  criminals  to  the  selectmen.*  Only  in 
1780,  when  a  constitution  had  been  formed  by  a  con- 
vention elected  for  that  express  purpose,  and  therefore 
drawn  up  by  the  people  themselves,  were  the  demands 
of  the  Berkshire  radicals  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Essex 
conservatives  on  the  other  harmonized,  and  the  new  con- 
stitution adopted.^ 

But  another  portion  of  the  Massachusetts  frontier 
protested  against  "  Essex  conservatism "  in  the  years 
following  the  adoption  of  this  very  constitution.  In 

»  Richmond  Toum  Records,  Nov.  12  and  16, 1778.  Cited  ibid.,  168.  Dr. 
Haynes  says  the  vote  of  Nov.  12  was  31  to  21,  of  Nov.  16,  24  to  13. 

2  Lenox  Toum  RecordSy  Feb.  8,  1779.  Cited  ibid.,  169,  171. 

»  Ibid.,  171,  172. 

*  Ibid.,  176-183. 

'  Ibid.,  264-266.  Dr.  Haynes  says,  "  Anglo-Saxon  tradition,  Berkshire 
democracy,  and  Essex  conservatism  gave  us  the  venerable  constitution  of 
1780." 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING     265 

1785  discussion  in  Maine  over  its  establishment  as  an 
independent  state  was  the  chief  theme  of  political  dis- 
course. Not  only  was  the  discussion  between  Maine  as 
the  frontier  and  Massachusetts  as  the  conservative  coast, 
but  there  was  division  within  the  borders  of  Maine 
itself  between  office-holders  and  the  people  at  large. 
The  first  newspaper  in  Maine  —  the  "Falmouth  Ga- 
zette"—  was  established  to  further  the  proposed  separa- 
tion, the  first  number  appearing  on  New  Year's  Day, 
1785.  A  list  of  grievances  drawn  up  by  a  committee  of 
the  convention  assembled  for  discussion  contain  some 
typical  frontier  complaints :  "  The  interests  of  these 
three  counties  [York,  Cumberland,  and  Lincoln]  are 
different  from  those  of  Massachusetts,  and  therefore, 
they  can  never  be  fully  understood  by  her,  nor  will  they 
for  the  same  reason  ever  be  duly  attended  to  and  pro- 
moted. .  .  ." 

"  iThe  seat  of  the  government  is  at  a  distance,  the 
General  Court  large,  and  its  business  multifarious  and 
perplexing ;  so  that  the  petitioners  and  suitors  in 
their  journies,  as  well  as  in  delays,  have  to  suffer  many 
and  great  inconveniences,  expenses,  and  discourage- 
ments. .  .  ." 

"  The  present  regulations  of  trade  operate  unequally 
and  unjustly  toward  these  Counties ;  for  they  tend  to 
depress  the  price  of  lumber.  ..." 

"  A  great  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  Counties 
are. deprived  of  representation  in  the  popular  branch 
of  the  Legislature,  where  all  the  money-bills  origi- 
nate. ..." 

The  document  ends  with  complaints  of  unjust  excise 


266  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  impost  taxes.  Here,  then,  is  quite  as  typical  a  com- 
plaint as  the  ones  of  which  it  is  distinctly  reminiscent, 
—  those  documents  of  the  whole  colonial  frontier  di- 
rected against  the  conservative  British  Parliament/ 

Another  instance  may  be  cited  to  illustrate  a  some- 
what different  side  of  the  friction  between  frontier'  and 
coast.^  In  1786  fifty  towns  of  Hampshire  County,  Mas- 
sachusetts, drew  up  a  list  of  grievances,  among  which 
was  one  complaining  of  the  mode  of  representation  then 
in  operation  ;  another,  "  that  all  the  civil  of&cers  of  gov- 

/ernment"  were  not  elected  annually  by  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people  assembled  in  General  Court ;  a  third, 
that  the  present  mode  of  taxation  operated  unequally  be- 
tween polls  and  estates,  and  between  the  landed  and  the 
mercantile  interests;  a  fourth,  that  the  General  Court 
sat  at  Boston.^  The  first  outbreak  of  sharp  rebellion  in 
1786  occurred  at  Northampton,  in  western  Massachu- 
setts,^ but  the  rising  was  not  confined  by  any  means  to 
that  portion  of  the  state. ^  In  New  Hampshire  the  mare 
conservative  settled  parts  were  opposed  to  paper  money ; 
whereas  the  more  radical  rural  population  demanded  it.® 
Vermont  went  through  a  similar  experience ;  ^ —  in  fact 

1  This  trouble  in  Maine  is  given  quite  fully  in  Williamson's  History  of 
Maine,  ii,  521-527  (edition  of  1832). 

'  The  material  for  this  paragraph  is  taken  from  a  manuscript  thesis  in 
Harvard  College  Library,  by  Dr.  J.  P.  Warren,  on  Shay^s  Rebellion. 

»  Massachusetts  Centinel^  Sept.  9, 1786,  cited  by  Dr.  Warren,  81,  82. 
There  are  thirteen  grievances  enumerated  ;  those  not  mentioned  above 
deal  with  complaints  concerning  the  operations  of  courts  and  lawyers,  etc. 

*  Ihid.y  89. 

6  Ibid.,  108. 

8  76irf.,App.iii,  128-135. 

^  Ibid.,  137,  138. 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING    267 

the  frontier,  which  has  always  had  naive  ideas  on  finance  l/J 
in  general,  demanded  paper  money  as  the  panacea  for  ( I 
all  economic  ills.  The  exception  is  Rhode  Island,  whose 
conservative  class  was  too  small  to  win  the  day  for  a 
sound  currency  as  the  mercantile  interests  of  Massachu- 
setts did,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  which  had  crystal- 
lized in  "Shay's  Rebellion." 

After  the  election  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to  the  presi- 
dency, the  reaction  in  New  England  against  clerical 
control  manifested  itself  in  no  uncertain  manner.  The 
dissenting  sects,  religious  and  political,  who  had  resented      ^ 
the  "machine"  management  of  state  government  by 
the  Congregational  Church  and  its  members  for  a  long 
time,  now  caused  an  upheaval;  and  it  was  easily  ascer- 
tained that  these  opponents  of  the  old*€*>^r  ©f  thij^g^    x    ,4        \.. 
were  from  the  outlying,  democratic  districts,  —  nortt-'^ 
western   Connecticut,  western   Massachusetts,  western 
New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont.  From  their  brethren  and 
neighbors  who  had  removed  to  New  York  or  to  Ohio, 
they  had  learned  that  manhood  suffrage  and  the  divorce       "•" 
of  state  affairs  from  clerical  control  were  no  dream,  but 
might  be  made  a  reality.  It  took  time  to  accomplish 
their  purpose  ;  but  in  the  end  the  frontier  won,  and  the 
extension  of  the  franchise  followed,  together  with  the 
fall  of  the  Congregational  Church  as  a  political  power. 
The  decline  of  the  Federalist  party,  the  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege case,  many  of  the  events  of  the  first  twenty  years     *** 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  show  the  reaction  in  New 
England  caused  by  the  demands  of  the  new  and  the  old 
frontier. 

In  1820  Clay  and  Calhoun,  the  former  a  radical  Ken- 


268  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

tuckian  of  pioneer  stock,  used  the  frontier  standard  of 
democracy  as  a  measure  of  John  Quincy  Adams's  fitness 
for  the  presidency.  Though  Adams  was  neither  a  Con- 
gregationalist  nor  a  FederaHst,  he  represented  some  of 
the  ideas  for  which  CongregationaHsm  and  Federalism 
had  stood,  and  astute  politicians  saw  that  he  could  not 
appeal  to  the  democratic  elements  of  his  native  New 
England,  to  say  nothing  of  the  failure  certain  to  come 
if  his  name  were  broached  as  that  of  a  possible  president 
for  the  whole  nation.  The  administration  of  Adams  was 
a  failure  because  of  the  lack  of  sympathy  between  him 
and  the  people  of  the  whole  country  save  a  remnant  of 
the  more  conservative  New  Englanders.*  He  went  out 
of  office  because  of  the  triumph  of  the  frontier,  repre- 
sented in  Andrew  Jackson.  The  same  elements  which, 
speaking  by  the  voice  of  Henry  Clay,  had  forced  the 
War  of  1812  upon  reluctant  conservatives  like  Madison 
had  grown  to  such  strength  and  raised  such  a  following 
even  in  the  older  states  that  the  presidency  was  now  in 
their  hands.  It  is  an  old  story,  —  the  history  of  Jack- 
son's administration,  when  he  broke  with  all  tradition, 
social,  political,  and  financial,  and  followed  the  policy 
which  seemed  to  him  best,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
which  at  some  time  in  his  term  he  met  with  in  every 
quarter.  He  had  no  sympathy  with  the  intense  loyalty 
of  the  Southerner  to  his  state,  for  he  was  a  product  of 
the  frontier,  of  a  state  whose  history  did  not  begin  until 
the  Revolution  was  imminent.  He  came  from  a  region 

1  The  movement  for  internal  improvements  to  be  made  by  the  federal 
government  belongs  to  this  period.  It  was  to  a  large  extent  induced  by- 
frontier  demands,  especially  from  those  parts  of  the  country  which  were 
as  yet  too  poor  to  make  expenditures  out  of  their  own  pockets. 


TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING     269 

where  all  the  elements  mingled,  as  they  have  always  done 
upon  the  edge  of  the  wilderness ;  the  homogeneous  char- 
acter of  an  Eastern  commonwealth  had  no  place  in  a  state 
to  whose  building  the  sons  of  many  states  had  contrib- 
uted. The  frontier  man,  a  complex  of  many  men,  yet  dif- 
ferentiated from  them  all,  —  such  was  Andrew  Jackson.^ 

Passing  over  the  panic  of  1837,  which  was  caused  by 
speculation  in  Western  lands  combined  with  frontier 
banking,  the  rise  of  the  Free-Soil  party  shows  a  slightly 
different  phase  of  the  question.  The  first  organized 
movement  for  the  formation  of  such  a  party  came 
from  an  anti-slavery  society  which  had  been  formed  in 
Burlington,  Racine  County,  Wisconsin,  in  1840.  That 
region  had  been  settled  by  New  England  or  New  York 
men,  in  whom  the  political  sense  was  keenly  developed. 
Generations  of  town-meetings  had  produced  an  especial 
capacity  for  transacting  public  business ;  most  of  these 
Wisconsin  men  had  served  their  apprenticeship  in  such 
local  gatherings.  To  such  politicians  the  policy  of  the 
abolitionists  was  incomprehensible,  the  vagueness  of 
their  platform  unattractive,  and  the  narrowness  of  their 
plan  of  action  "  positively  distasteful."  *  Two  newspapers 
were  secured  for  the  Free-Soil  side,  and  the  campaign 
began,  —  a  frontier  movement  at  its  very  beginning. 

It  was  the  rapid  settlement  of  the  West  which  turned 
the  eyes  of  the  Southerners  toward  Texas,  with  its  wide 
areas  for  cotton  culture.  The  rapid  development  of  the 

^  For  the  history  of  the  Free-Soil  party  in  Wisconsin,  see  Professor 
Theodore  Clarke  Smith,  in  Proc.  Wisconsin  Hist.  Soc.  (1895),  pp.  101- 
107.  The  phrase  used  above  is  his.  For  interesting  observations  on  the 
efiPeet  of  the  town-meeting  in  developing  politicians,  see  D  wight,  Travels f 
i,  249-252. 


270  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

lower  South,  with  its  peculiar  system  of  immense  planta- 
tions developed  out  of  English  economic  demands  in  the 
decade  1830-40,  had  made  expansion  to  the  West  a 
necessity.  The  Mexican  War  was  essentially  a  war  of  ag- 
gression begun  at  the  behest  of  a  frontier  which  seemed 
to  be  cut  off  from  further  extension.* 

When,  in  1854,  the  Republican  party  was  formed,  it 
was  in  answer  to  the  demands  of  the  frontier  that  slavery 
should  not  be  thrust  upon  pioneers  building  new  states. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  a  Vermonter  by  birth,  had  no 
chance  for  the  presidency  in  the  face  of  Lincoln's  can- 
didacy under  the  Republican  party's  standard.  The  elec- 
tion of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  brought  about  by  the 
union  of  many  factions  and  many  creeds  under  the  lead- 
ership of  a  frontier  man  to  carry  out  a  frontier  policy. 
Transplanted  New  Englanders  joined  with  emigrants 
from  many  other  states,  and  carried  a  representative  of 
pioneer  stock  in  a  pioneer  state  to  the  chief  magistracy 
of  the  nation.  When  the  war  had  broken  out,  when  the 
Southerners  had  withdrawn  from  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  national  legis- 
lature was  to  pass  the  Homestead  Act,  the  great  triumph 
of  the  Northern  pioneer,  the  crystallization  in  statute  of 
the  frontiersman's  protest  against  bringing  into  the 
West  the  large  plantations  run  by  slaves.^ 

*  See  William  Garrott  Brown,  The  Lower  South  in  American  History. 
Also  Professor  F.  J.  Turner,  "  The  South,  1820-1830,"  in  the  American 
Historical  Review,  April,  1906,  especially  665-573.  James  Russell  Lowell's 
Biglow  Papers  are  invaluable  as  an  expression  of  contemporary  opinion 
on  the  Mexican  War. 

2  Payson  J.  Treat,  manuscript  thesis  on  the  influence  of  New  England 
on  the  public  land  system. 


'        TWO  CENTURIES  AND  A  HALF  OF  PIONEERING     271 

Besides  the  active  influence  that  emigration  from 
New  England  had  exerted,  there  is  a  negative  side  to  be 
noted  as  well.  The  rise  of  steamboat  navigation  and  of 
the  railroad  developed  the  West  in  an  extraordinarily 
short  time.  Travel  became  easy,  markets  for  surplus 
products  came  almost  to  the  farmer's  door,  and  pioneer- 
ing lost  many  of  its  hardships.  To  the  steamboat  and 
the  railroad  may  be  traced  the  marvelous  growth  of 
Michigan  and  Wisconsin  especially.  But  this  drain  of 
population  had  an  effect  upon  New  England ;  the  in- 
crease of  population  fell  off  in  the  decade  ending  with 
1840,  to  14  per  cent ;  it  had  been  17  per  cent  between 
1820  and  1830.^  The  agricultural  sections  were  affected 
especially,  for  the  emigrants  to  the  West  had  been 
mostly  farmers.  In  at  least  five  of  the  New  England 
States  the  agricultural  population,  between  1830  and 
1840,  either  remained  stationary,  or  actually  decreased. 
Maine  had  an  extensive  farming  territory,  and  there  the 
increase  was  nearly  equal  to  the  annual  increase  in  the 
United  States.  Between  1830  and  1840  two  counties 
out  of  the  eight  in  Connecticut  decreased  in  population, 
and  one  increased  by  only  thirty-five  inhabitants.  Wash- 
ington County,  Rhode  Island,  lost  1087  persons ;  almost 
the  whole  increase  of  the  entire  state  was  in  Providence 
and  the  surrounding  county.  In  New  Hampshire,  Che- 
shire County  lost  587 ;  the  increase  was  confined  almost 
entirely  to  the  cities  of  Manchester,  Nashua,  and  Dover. 
Six  of  the  thirteen  counties  of  Vermont  decreased. 

With  the  decrease  in  population  went  a  change  in 
occupation.  The  intensive  cultivation  required  in  New 

*  See  Chickering,  Statistical  View  of  Massachusetts  Population^  71,  72. 


2p      THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Eb^and  could  not  compete  with  the  extensive  system 
of  the  prairie  states,  and  New  England,  worsted  in  com- 
petition with  the  West,  was  forced  to  change  from  agri- 
culture to  manufacturing/  With  this  change,  the  char- 
acter of  the  population  was  altered.  The  small  farmer, 
the  ambitious  mechanic,  had  emigrated;  their  places 
were  taken  by  immigrants  from  foreign  countries  who 
could  be  used  as  factory  hands,  as  well  as  to  supply  the 
demand  for  manual  labor  for  which  emigration  was 
largely  responsible.  By  the  call  of  the  frontier,  the 
character  of  New  England  was  changed. 

When  one  notes  how  many  of  the  cities  and  towns  of 
New  England  are  to-day  controlled  politically  by  those 
who  have  neither  Puritan  traditions,  Puritan  back- 
ground of  ancestry,  nor  Puritan  ideals,  one  feels  dis- 
mayed, for  it  would  seem  that  the  old  order  had  passed 
away  save  in  memory  and  in  history.^  But  it  is  not  an 
unintelligent  and  sentimental  optimism  alone  which 
asserts  that  New  England  is  still  a  living  force,  and 
Puritan  traditions  and  ideals  still  working  models.  Such 
an  assertion  is  proved  to  be  undeniable  fact  when  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  New  England  have  been  sought 
out  in  the  West.  The  history  of  New  England  is  not 
confined  to  six  states ;  it  is  contained  in  a  greater  and 
broader  New  England  wherever  the  children  of  the 
Puritans  are  found. 

*  The  invention  of  the  McCormick  reaper  in  1834  gave  a  tremendous 
impetus  to  the  system  of  extensive  farming  in  the  West,  and  had  great 
influence  in  developing  the  competition  in  agriculture  whereby  the  East 
was  worsted. 

2  See  Hugh  McCulloch,  quoted  along  this  same  line,  by  E.  P.  Powell, 
in  "  New  England  in  Michigan,"  New  England  MagazinCy  xiii,  427. 


APPEKDICES 


APPENDIX  A 

The  methods  used  in  making  the  maps  for  this  study  may- 
need  explanation.  For  the  New  England  ones,  the  date  of 
settlement  of  every  town  has  been  ascertained  as  nearly  as 
possible,  and  each  one  has  then  been  plotted  in  its  proper 
place  in  the  period  covered  by  the  map.  When  the  date  of 
settlement  is  unknown,  the  date  of  incorporation  has  been 
taken;  but  that  was  necessary  in  comparatively  few  cases. 
After  all  the  towns  settled  in  a  given  period  were  drawn  on 
the  map,  the  outer  line  of  all  has  been  taken  as  the  frontier 
line  at  the  last  date  chosen,  and  the  whole  area  within  that 
line  has  been  colored  as  the  settled  area  of  the  period.  Of 
course  each  period  includes  all  previous  frontier  lines,  with 
the  towns  added  between  the  new  dates  taken,  except  where 
Indians  have  destroyed  towns  and  the  settlers  have  not  rebuilt 
them ;  in  that  case  they  are  omitted. 

The  maps  outside  of  New  England  are  done  in  a  different 
manner,  and  are  of  two  kinds ;  the  first  kind  of  maps  indicates 
the  counties  and  towns  where  New  Englanders  actually  settled, 
their  presence  having  been  ascertained  from  many  sources. 
In  these  no  account  is  taken  of  any  other  sort  of  settlement 
save  that  directly  from  New  England.  In  the  second  kind  of 
maps,  the  census  maps  in  the  Statistical  Atlas  of  1890  have 
been  made  the  basis  of  the  work,  since  they  show  the  whole 
area  settled  at  the  end  of  each  decade.  Upon  these  has  been 
overlaid  the  New  England  settlement  of  the  maps  before 
1790  as  well  as  afterward. 

The  bibliography  of  this  study  includes  only  the  books 
actually  referred  to  in  the  text ;  the  maps  represent  research 
through  an  enormous  mass  of  material  afforded  by  the  facili- 
ties of  the  libraries  of  Harvard  College,  the  Wisconsin  State 


276  THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Historical  Society,  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Leland  Stan- 
ford Junior  University,  and  the  city  of  Indianapolis.  There 
have  been  called  into  requisition  colonial  records;  proceed- 
ings and  collections  of  historical  societies  ;  state,  county,  and 
town  histories ;  genealogies  and  family  histories ;  church  rec- 
ords; papers  of  missionaries  and  missionary  societies;  tax 
lists  and  lists  of  ratable  polls ;  city  directories ;  college  cata- 
logues; manuscript  letters  and  papers;  lists  of  marriages, 
deaths,  and  births :  —  any  sort  of  material  that  could  throw- 
light  upon  the  settlement,  history,  annals,  or  population  of  a 
town.  The  maps  are  intended  to  illustrate  the  text  by  show- 
ing the  actual  area  of  settled  land,  with  the  frontier  line,  at 
any  given  time. 


APPENDIX  B 

NATIVITY  OF  POPULATION 

Census  of  1850.     (Includes  only  natives  of  New  York  and  the  New  England 

States.) 


Conn. 

Mass. 

Ver. 
mont 

New 
Hamp. 

Maine 

Bhode 
Island 

New 
York 

New  York 

66101 

55773 

52599 

14519 

4509 

13129 

Penn. 

9266 

7330 

4532 

1775 

1157 

1946 

58835 

New  Jersey 

2105 

1494 

280 

301 

287 

264 

20561 

Ohio 

22855 

18763 

14320 

4821 

3314 

1959 

83979 

Indiana 

2485 

2678 

3183 

886 

976 

438 

67180 

Illinois 

6889 

9230 

11381 

4288 

3693 

1051 

24310 

Michigan 

6751 

8167 

11113 

2744 

1117 

1031 

133756 

Wisconsin 

4125 

6285 

10157 

2520 

3252 

690 

68595 

NATIVITY  OF  POPULATION 

Census  of  1860.     (Includes  only  natives  of  New  York  and  the  New  England 

States.) 


New 
York 

Ver. 

mont 

Conn. 

Mass. 

New 
Hamp. 

Maine 

Rhode 
Island 

New  York 

46990 

53141 

50004 

12497 

5794 

9555 

Ohio 

75550 

11652 

16741 

16313 

4111 

3011 

1558 

Indiana 

30855 

3539 

2505 

3443 

1072 

1293 

455 

Illinois 

121508 

18253 

11192 

19053 

7868 

7475 

2252 

Michigan 

191128 

13779 

7636 

9873 

3482 

2214 

1122 

Wisconsin 

120637 

19184 

7203 

12115 

5907 

8467 

1462 

Frow,  all  the  New  England  States, 


Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 


53386 
12307 
66093 
38106 
64338 


278 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


APPENDIX   C 
SETTLEMENT  OF  VERMONTERS  IN  WISCONSIN  BY  COUNTIES 


1870 

1870 

1870 

Adama  . 

.    .    168 

Green    .     . 

.    391 

Polk      . 

.      30 

Ashland 

Green  Lake 

.     353 

Portage 

.     192 

Barron  . 

8 

Iowa      .     . 

.       72 

Racine  . 

.    357 

Bayfield 

2 

Jackson 

.     140 

Richland 

.     258 

Brown  . 

.    .    211 

Jefferson    . 

.     632 

Rock      . 

.     .     171 

Buffalo  . 

.     .    194 

Juneau 

.     298 

Sauk 

.     609 

Burnett 

Kenosha     . 

.     235 

Shawano 

.      23 

Calumet 

.    .    130 

Kewaunee  . 

.       27 

Sheboygan 

.    272 

Chippewa 

.     143 

La  Crosse  . 

.     333 

St.  Croix 

.    231 

Clark     . 

.    .      80 

La  Fayette 

.     150 

Trempaleau     .     177 

Columbia 

.     680 

Manitowoc 

.     136 

Vernon  . 

.     218 

Crawford 

.    137 

Marathon   . 

.      46 

Walworth 

.     736 

Dane     .     . 

.  1061 

Marquette  . 

.     216 

Washington     .       58 

Dodge   . 

.     764 

Milwaukee 

.     478 

Waukesha 

.     440 

Dorr      . 

.     .      21 

Monroe 

.    458 

Waupaca 

.     378 

Douglas 

.     .        4 

Oconto  .     . 

.      90 

Waushara 

.    354 

Dunn     , 

.     146 

Outagamie . 

.     222 

Winnebago 

.    940 

Eau  Claire 

.     208 

Ozaukee     . 

2 

Wood    . 

.      46 

Fond  du  L 

ic  .    995 

Pekin    .     . 

.     135 

Grant    . 

.     .    317 

Pierce   .     . 

.    228 

INDEX 


INDEX 


Abingdon,  Massachusetts,  84  n. 

Academies,  Connecticut,  Lebanon,  132 
n. ;  New  London,  132  n. ;  Michigan, 
230 ;  New  Hampshire,  Amherst,  132 ; 
Atkinson,  132;  Concord,  132;  New 
Ipswich,  132. 

*'  Accommodation  system  "  of  Congre- 
gational churches,  163,  187,  188, 
234 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  268. 

Adams,  Massachusetts,  110,  158. 

Adams  County,  Illinois,  207. 

Addington,  Isaac,  73  n. 

Addison,  Vermont,  142,  227. 

Addison  County,  Vermont,  228. 

Agricultural  societies,  185. 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  peace  of,  102,  108. 

Albany,  New  York,  157,  227. 

Albany,  Vermont,  202. 

Alden,  Timothy,  152. 

Alford,  Massachusetts,  80. 

Alleghany  College,  Pennsylvania,  152. 

Alleghany  Mountains,  The,  9,  131. 

Allegheny  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

Allen,  Ethan,  128. 

Almira  College,  Greenville,  Illinois, 
218  n. 

Alstead,  New  Hampshire,  144. 

Alton,  Illinois,  218  n. 

Amesbury,  Massachusetts,  31,  49. 

Amherst,  Massachusetts,  79. 

Amherst,  New  Hampshire,  89,  202, 
231  n. 

Amherst,  Ohio,  185  n. 

Andover,  lUmois,  215,  216. 

Andover,  Maine,  141. 

Andover,  Massachusetts,  113,  114, 141, 
202. 

Andover,  Ohio,  185  n. 

Andover,  Vermont,  129  n. 


Angell,  President  James  F.,  233. 

Annapolis,  Nova  Scotia,  88. 

"Anne,"  The,  13. 

Appalachian  Mountains,  The,  118,  171. 

Arlington,  Vermont,  116. 

Arnold,  Jonathan,  144. 

Aroostook  County,  Maine,  145. 

Ashburnham,  Massachusetts,  83  n.,  98. 

Ashfield,  Massachusetts,  240  n. 

Ashf ord,  Massachusetts,  90. 

Ashley  River,  The,  68. 

Ashtabula  County,  Ohio,  179. 

Athens,  Pennsylvania,  244. 

Athol,  Massachusetts,  109  n. 

Atkinson,  Maine,  141. 

Atkinson,  New  Hampshire,  89. 

Attleborough,  Massachusetts,  168  n. 

Atwater,  Joshua,  196. 

Auburn,  Maine,  141. 

Auburn   Theological   Seminary,  New 

York,  161. 
Auction-sales  of  townships,  93,  110. 
Augusta,  Maine,  114. 
Augusta,  New  York,  158. 
Austinsburgh,  Ohio,  179. 
Ayer,  Massachusetts,  58  n. 

Bacon  Academy,  Colchester,  Connecti- 
cut, 233. 

Baldwin,  Maine,  114. 

Banking  in  New  England,  105. 

Baptists,  164.  See  also  Baptist  Church. 

Baptist  Church,  6,  164,  202. 

Barkhamstead,  Connecticut,  92,  93, 
109,  111. 

Barnard,  Vermont,  117  n. 

Barn-raisings,  7. 

Barnstable,  Massachusetts,  28,  49,  54, 
65,  84  n.,  109,  167  n.,  168  n. 

Barre,  Massachusetts,  143. 


INDEX 


Barrington,  Nova  Scotia,  emigration 
to,  118  n. 

Barrington,  Rhode  Island,  50. 

Barton,  Vermont,  144. 

Bath,  Maine,  86. 

Bath,  New  Hampshire,  144,  167  n. 

Becket,  Massachusetts,  108,  181. 

"  Becket  Land  Company,"  The,  181. 

Bedford,  New  Hampshire,  88  n.,  89. 

Bedford,  New  York,  66,  70. 

Bedford  County,  Pennsylvania,  131. 

Belcher,  Governor,  on  Newark  inhab- 
itants, 54. 

BeHast,  Maine,  113, 130. 

Beloit,  Wisconsin,  240,  241,  242,  243, 
245. 

Beloit  College,  Wisconsin,  242. 

Bennington,  Vermont,  115,  116,  117, 
144,  167  n.,  240  n. 

Bennington  County,  Vermont,  145,  230. 

Benson,  Vermont,  142,  212. 

Benson  colony,  The,  of  DuPage  County, 
Illinois,  212. 

Bergen,  New  York,  162. 

Berkeley,  Lord,  48,  52. 

Berkshire,  New  York,  157  n. 

Berkshire  County,  Massachusetts,  9,  79, 
104,  158,  162,  201,  240  n. ;  revolt 
of,  in  1778-79,  263,  264. 

Berlin,  Connecticut,  125  n. 

Berlin,  Massachusetts,  58  n. 

Berlin,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

Berrien  County,  Michigan,  227. 

Berwick,  Maine,  84  n.,  88. 

Bethel,  Vermont,  130. 

Bethlehem,  Connecticut,  94. 

Bethlehem,  New  Hampshire,  140. 

Beverly,  Massachusetts,  114. 

Bible  Society  of  Ohio,  The,  176. 

Biddeford,  Maine,  57. 

Big  Black  River,  The,  of  Mississippi, 
127. 

Billerica,  Massachusetts,  89. 

Binghamton,  New  York,  155. 

Black  Hawk  War,  The,  210,  211 ;  in- 
fluence on  settlement,  210,  211,  236, 
237. 

Black  River,  The,  of  Vermont,  98  n. 

Blakeley,  Josiah,  168  n. 


Blandford,  Massachusetts,  78  n. 

Bloomfield,  Maine,  114. 

Bloomfield,  New  Jersey,  54  n. 

Bloomfield,  Vermont,  146. 

Bloomington,  Indiana,  203. 

Bloomington,  Wisconsin,  244. 

Blount  County,  Tennessee,  128,  199. 

BluehiU,  Maine,  114. 

Bolton,  Connecticut,  145,  179. 

Boone,  Daniel,  131,  196. 

Boothbay,  Maine,  240  n. 

Boston,  Massachusetts,  9,  15,  26,  32, 
33  n.,  58,  70,  77  n.,  82,  90  n.,  100, 
103  n.,  112  n.,  114,  158,  176  n.,  177, 
202,  218  n. 

Boston  and  Albany  Railroad,  The,  36 
n. 

Bounty-lands,  in  Michigan,  222 ;  in 
Ohio,  173.; 

Bowdoin,  Peter,  147. 

Bowdoin  College,  147. 

Bowdoinham,  Maine,  218. 

Bowen,  family  name,  127. 

Bozrah,  Connecticut,  167  n. 

Bozrah,  Pennsylvania,  125. 

Braddock,  General,  108. 

"  Braddock  Road,"  The,  174. 

Bradford,  Maj.  Robert,  177. 

Bradford,  William,  governor  of  Ply- 
mouth, 12,  177. 

Bradford,  New  Hampshire,  112,  202. 

Bradford  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

Bradley,  family  name,  127. 

Bradley,  Maine,  145. 

Braintree,  Massachusetts,  14,  49,  85  n., 
143. 

Braintree,  Vermont,  143. 

Braintree  Farms,  Massachusetts.  See 
New  Braintree. 

Brandon,  Vermont,  129. 

Branford,  Connecticut,  24  n.,  26,  53, 
257  n. 

Brattleboro,  Vermont,  199,  240  n. 

Brewer,  Maine,  130. 

Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  216  n. 

Bridgewater,  Massachusetts,  49,  202. 

Brimfield,  Massachusetts,  94  n.,  112  n. 

Bristol,  Connecticut,  240  n. 

Bristol,  England,  63. 


INDEX 


283 


Bristol,  Maine,  57,  86. 
Bristol,  Rhode  Island,  63,  91. 
Brooke,  Rev.  John,  67. 
Brookfiold,  Massachusetts,  36  n.,  49, 

58  n.,  77  n.,  79,  94  n.,  176  n. 
Brookfield,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Brookiield,  Vermont,  201. 
Brookline,  Massachusetts  (first  called 

Muddy  River),  17. 
Brookline,  Vermont,  129  n. 
Brooks,  Maine,  141. 
Brown,  John,  family  of,  187  n. 
Brown  University,  Providence,  Rhode 

Island,  218  n.,  232,  233. 
Brownstown,  Michigan,  224  n. 
Brunswick,  Maine,  50,  147. 
Bucksport,  Maine,  114. 
Buffalo,  New  York,  154, 165, 179,  225, 

227. 
Burlington,  Vermont,  144,  201,  240. 
Burlington,  Wisconsin,  269. 
Burr,  John,   of  Fairfield,  Connecticut, 

92. 
Burrillville,  Rhode  Island,  144. 
Burton,  Ohio,  179. 
Butler,  family  name,  124  n. 
Butler  County,  Ohio,  178. 
Butterfield,  Jeremiah,  179  n. 
Buxton,  Maine,  84  n. 

Cable,  John,  21  n. 

Cabot,  Vermont,  143. 

Cairo,  Illinois,  215  n. 

Caledonia  County ,Vermont,  202. 

Calhoun,  John  C,  267,  268. 

California,  7. 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts  (first  called 

Newtowne),  16,  18, 29,  31, 90  n.,  117, 

174,  177. 
Cambridge,  New  Hampshire,  140. 
Cambridge,  Vermont,  144. 
CamiUus,  New  York,  232  n. 
Caimpton,  New  Hampshire,  112. 
Canaan,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  143, 168  n., 

176  n.,  257  n. 
Canaan,  Maine,  114. 
Canaan,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Canada,  7,  88,  98,  141,  142,  207. 
Canada,  emigration  to,  7,  118  n.,  169  n. 


"  Canada  Townships,"  83. 

Canadian  expedition,  The,  of  1690,  83. 

Canandaigua,  New  York,  156,  164. 

Candor,  New  York,  163. 

Cane  Creek,  North  Carolina,  128  n. 

Canterbury,  Connecticut,  65,  80, 109  n., 

168  n. 
Canterbury,  New  Hampshire,  89. 
Canton,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Cape  Cod,  Massachusetts,  28,  49,  80, 

84  n.,  95,  114,  118  n.,  199. 
Cape  Elizabeth,  Maine,  86. 
Cape  May  County,  New  Jersey,  95, 

214  n. 
Cape  Porpoise,  Maine,  14. 
Cape  Sable,  Nova  Scotia,  emigration  to, 

118  n. 
Carleton  College,  Minnesota,  187. 
Carman,  family  name,  10,  214  n. 
Caroline,  New  York,  232  n. 
Carteret,  Philip,  53. 
Carteret,  Sir  George,  48,  52. 
Carver,  Deacon  John,  11. 
Casco  Bay,  Maine,  57. 
Case,  family  name,  127. 
Cash,  family  name,  119  n. 
Cass,  Gen.  Lewis,  230,  231. 
Cass  County,  Indiana,  199. 
Chapman,  family  name,  124  n. 
Charlemont,  Massachusetts,  117, 214  n. 
Charles  I,  King  of  England,  2,  15,  43. 
Charles  II,  King  of  England,  43, 45, 53. 
Charles  River,  The,  69  n. 
Charleston,  Pennsylvania,  122  n. 
Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  25, 29,  68. 
Charlestown,  New  Hampshire,  89, 109, 

257  n. 
Charlestown,  Rhode  Island,  50,  58. 
Charlton,  Massachusetts,  110  n. 
Charters  issued  to  colonies,  15,  44,  45, 

46, 48. 
Chatham,  Massachusetts,  218  n.,  240. 
Chatham  County,  North  Carolina,  128 

n.,  199. 
Chautauqua  County,  New  York,  168  n. 
Chelmsford,  Massachusetts,  64, 89, 178, 

179. 
Chemung,  New  York,  153. 
Cherry  Valley,  New  York,  96. 


284 


INDEX 


Cheshire,  Connecticut,  24  n.,  168  n., 

240  n. 
Cheshire,  Massachusetts,  110. 
Chesterfield,  Massachusetts,  110,  176  n. 
Chicago,  Illinois,  216  n.,  236. 
Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul  Rail- 
road, The,  246. 
"  Chicago  Road,"  The,  225. 
Chicopee,  Massachusetts,  227. 
Chillicothe,  Ohio,  178  n. 
China,  Maine,  114. 
Chittenden   County,  Vermont,  117  n., 

257  n. 
Church  quarrels,  18,  19  n.,  22,  27,  28, 

31,  32,  33,  34,  62,  72,  104,  117, 188, 

251. 
Churches  transplanted,  11,  16,  18,  19, 

20,  28, 31, 34, 36,  37, 88, 92, 116,  127, 

136, 151, 162, 174, 180,  186, 188,228, 

242. 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  178  n.,  193. 
Civil  War,  The  (in  England),  48. 
Clap,  Rev.  Thomas,  69. 
Claremont,  New  Hampshire,  112,  144, 

257  n. 
Clarendon,  Vermont,  146. 
Clarksburg,  Massachusetts,  110. 
Clay,  Henry,  267,  268. 
Cocheco  Falls,  New  Hampshire,  98,  99. 
Cochecton,  Pennsylvania,  119  n. 
Cochrane,  Rev.  Sylvester,  229,  230. 
Coddington,  William,  33. 
Coeducation,  186,  233  n.,  262. 
Coffin,  family  name,  128,  199  n. 
Cohasset,  Massachusetts,  110  n. 
Colchester,  Connecticut,  60  n.,  66  n., 

93  n.,  124  n.,  167  n.,  168  n.,  176  n., 

202. 
Colchester,  Vermont,  129  n. 
Colebrook,  Connecticut,  92,  111,  240  n. 
Colebrook,  New  Hampshire,  241,  245. 
Colebrook,  Ohio,  185  n. 
Coleraine,  Massachusetts,  78  n. 
Colleton  County,  South  Carolina,  96. 
Collins,  family  name,  206. 
CoUinsville,  Illinois,  206,  207. 
Colonies  from  New  England,  256;  in 

Georgia,  96,  97 ;  in  Illinois,  211,  212, 

213,   214,    215,   216;    in   Indiana, 


197  n.,  199, 202 ;  in  Long  Island,  34 ; 
in  Michigan,  228,  229,  230;  in  Mis- 
sissippi, 125,  126,  127,  253 ;  in  New 
Jersey,  52,  53,  54;  in  New  York, 
34,  35,  155,  157,  158,  159,  162 ;  in 
North  Carolina,  127,  128,  253;  in 
Ohio,  174,  175,  176,  177,  178,  179, 
180,  185,  186,  192  n;  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 118,  120,  121,  124,  125,  151, 
252,  253 ;  in  South  Carolina,  68,  96, 
97 ;  in  Wisconsin,  240,  241, 242,  243, 
244. 

Columbia  River,  10. 

•'  Common,"  The,  17. 

Compact  by  settlers,  11,  22,  52  n.,  68, 
122,  123,  159,  180,  186,  229. 

Comstock,  family  name,  10,  127. 

Comstock,  John,  203. 

Concord,  Massachusetts,  17,  23,  26, 35, 
62,  63  n.,  64,  68,  77  n.,  114,  117. 

Concord,  New  Hampshire,  89,  113, 129 
n. 

Congregational  Church,  The,  6,  54,  67, 
68,  143,  151,  162,  163,  164,  180,  187, 
205, 212, 216,  217,  218,  228, 230,  233, 
234,  242,  243,244,  245,  267;  relation 
to  Presbyterian  Church,  in  Indiana, 
205 ;  in  Michigan,  234 ;  in  New  York, 
162,  163 ;  in  Ohio,  187,  188. 

Conneaut,  Ohio,  178,  179. 

Connecticut,  9,  23,  72,  151,  155,  157, 
158,  159  n.  For  settlement  of,  see 
Settlement.  For  emigration  from,  see 
Emigration. 

Connecticut  River,  The,  18,  21,  51,  73, 
83,  84,  85,  89, 95, 153,  174,  175. 

Connecticut,  school  fund  of,  93  n.,  174. 

Connecticut  Valley,  The,  18,  49,  103. 
See  also  under  different  towns. 

Constitutional  Conventions  in  Wiscon- 
sin, 239. 

Conway,  Massachusetts,  176  n.,  189. 

*'  Coonskin  Library,"  The,  178  n. 

Cooper,  Thomas,  21  n. 

Coos  County,  New  Hampshire,  140. 

"Coos  Road,"  The,  142. 

Corn-husking,  8. 

Cornish,  New  Hampshire,  112. 

Cornwall,  Connecticut,  93  a. 


INDEX 


285 


Cornwall,  New  York,  129. 

County  officers  in  New  York,  165 ;  in 
Ohio,  190,  191. 

County  system  of  government,  165, 190, 
191,  206,  217, 218,  235, 236, 238, 239. 

Coventry,  Connecticut,  6Q  n. 

Coventry,  Rhode  Island,  46,  58,  232  n. 

Crane,  family  name,  127. 

Crary,  Isaac,  231,  233. 

Crawford  County,  Pennsylvania,  151, 
152. 

Credit  system  of  public  land  sales,  183. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  3,  43,  44. 

Crop-failure  in  the  East,  198. 

"  Crown  Point  Road,"  The,  98,  101. 

Croydon,  New  Hampshire,  112. 

Crusades,  The,  4. 

Cumberland,  Rhode  Island,  22,  91. 

Cumberland  County,  Maine,  population 
in  1764,  114  n. 

Cumberland  County,  Vermont,  popula- 
tion in  1771,  117. 

Cummins,  family  name,  119  n. 

Cushetunck,  Pennsylvania,  119  n., 
124  n. 

Cutler,  Judge  Ephraim,  189. 

Cutler,  Maine,  141. 

Cutler,  Rev.  Manasseh,  175. 

Cuyahoga  River,  The,  178. 

Damariscotta,  Maine,  14. 
Damariscove  Island,  Maine,  88. 
Dana,  Capt.  William,  177. 
Danbury,  Connecticut,  60  n.,  64. 
Danby,  Vermont,  115. 
Danvers,  Massachusetts,  176,  216  n. 
Dartmouth,  Massachusetts,  232  n. 
Dartmouth  College,  133, 150,  204,  205, 

242. 
Dartmouth  College  Case,  The,  267. 
Davenport  and  Eaton  Company,  The, 

24,  25, 51,  52. 
Dearborn  County,  Indiana,  198,  206. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  The,  172. 
Dedham,  Massachusetts,  35,  58,  80. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts,  50,  58  n.,  79, 

90  n. 
Deerfield,  New  Hampshire,  240  n. 
Deerfield,  OUo,  179. 


Delavan,  Illinois,  213, 
Delaware  Company,  118,  119. 
Delaware  County,  New  York,  96,  161. 
Delaware  River,  The,  48,  119,  124  n., 

125,  151. 
Democratic  Party,  The,  230. 
Dennysville,  Maine,  141. 
Denton,  family  name,  10. 
Denward,  Maiae,  141. 
Derby,  Connecticut,  92,  240. 
Derby,  Vermont,  245. 
Detroit,  Michigan,  222,  223,  224,  225, 

227,228,230;  incorporation  of ,  223. 
Devol,  Jonathan,  177. 
Devonshire,  England,  8. 
Dexter,  Maine,  141,  240  n. 
Difficulty  of  peopling  wilderness,  31, 

35,  60,  61, 62,  63,  77, 78,  84,  85,  89, 

90,  99,  101. 
Dighton,  Massachusetts,  155. 
Dinsmore,  Silas,  168  n. 
Doane,  family  name,  128  n. 
Doane,  Daniel,  69  n. 
Doane,  Elnathan,  95  n. 
Doanesburg,  New  York,  95  n. 
Dorchester,  Connecticut.   See  Windsor. 
Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  15,  65,  68, 

83  n. 
Dorchester,  South  Carolina,  68,  96. 
Dorset,  Vermont,  202. 
Dorsetshire,  England,  14  n. 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  270. 
Dover,  New  Hampshire,  14,  32,  99. 
Dracut,  Massachusetts,  177. 
Drury,  S.  F.,  232. 
Drury  College,  Missouri,  187,  232. 
Dudley,  Massachusetts,  110  n. 
Duke  of  York,  The,  48. 
"  Duke  of  York's  Laws,"  The,  47,  48, 

165. 
Dummer,  Jeremiah,  82. 
Dummer,  William,  82. 
Dummer,  New  Hampshire,  140. 
Dummerston,  Vermont,  90. 
Dunbar,  Gbvernor,  88. 
Dunstable,  Massachusetts,  49,  50,  57, 

62, 86. 
DuPage  County,  Illinois,  emigration  to, 

142  n. 


INDEX 


Durham,  Connecticut,  66  n.,  93  n.,  156, 

157,  157  n.,  257  n. 
Durham,  New  Hampshire  (first  called 

Oyster  River),  14. 
Durham,  New  York,  157,  160. 
Dutch,  The,  18. 
Dutchess  County,  New  York,  95,  116, 

144. 
Duxhury,  Massachusetts,    13,  84    n., 

212  n. 
D wight,  Timothy,  on  Maine,  147  ;  on 

New  Hampshire,  147  ;  on  Vermont, 

146,  147  ;  on  New  York,  160,   168, 

169 ;  on  classes  of  settlers,  148  n. 

East  Bridgewater,  Massachusetts,  49. 

Eastdorp,  New  York.  See  Westchester. 

East  Florida,  territory  of,  118. 

East  Greenwich,  Rhode  Island,  50, 
60. 

East  Haddam,  Connecticut,  111,  112, 
239  n. 

Eastham,  Massachusetts,  28  n.,  62,  69 
n.,  84  n.,  95  n. 

Easthampton,  Long  Island,  26,  34. 

East  Haven,  Connecticut,  24  n. 

East  India  Company,  The,  15. 

East  Jersey.     See  New  Jersey. 

East  Poultney,  Vermont,  227,  229,  230. 

East  Smithfield,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

East  Windsor,  Connecticut,  51,  111. 

Eaton  County,  Michigan,  229. 

Economic  conditions,  about  1812 ;  182, 
183. 

Edgartown,  Massachusetts,  29. 

Edict  of  Nantes,  revocation  of,  63. 

Education,  neglect  of,  104,  131,  132, 
146,  147,  167  n. ;  provision  for,  38, 
39,  54,  69,  121,  132,  133,  136,  147, 
152, 161, 162,  167,  174, 175, 176,  180, 
185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191,  192, 
196, 202,  203, 204,  205, 207,  216, 217, 
218, 230, 232,  233,  242,  243. 

Edwards  County,  Illinois,  New  Eng- 
land colony  in,  214  n. 

Egremont,  Massachusetts,  79. 

Election  of  1824,  268;  of  1828,268; 
of  1860,  270. 

Eliot,  Rev.  John,  65. 


Elizabeth,  New  Jersey,  54,  56,  67. 

Elizabeth,  queen  of  England,  3. 

Elk  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

Elkhart  County,  Indiana,  200  n. 

Ellington,  Connecticut,  103. 

Elliot,  James,  145. 

Ellsworth,  family  name,  127. 

Ellsworth,  Ohio,  179. 

Emerald  Grove,  Wisconsin,  244. 

Emigration ;  from  Canada,  141 ;  from 
Connecticut,  8,  9,  10,  34,  52,  53,  54, 
80,  90  n.,  91,  92,  95,  96,  97,  109, 110, 

111,  112,113,  115,  116,  117, 118, 119, 
120,  124  n.,  125,  126,  127,  129,  133, 
134,  136, 140,  142, 143,  145,  146, 151, 
152, 154,  155,jl56,  157,  158,  159, 160, 
161, 162, 167  n.,  168  n.,  174, 175, 177, 
178, 179,  181, 184,  185, 186, 189,  192, 
193,  196,  199,  200  n.,  201,  202,  206, 

210,  213,  215,  216  n.,  227,  228,  231, 
233,  237,  239  n.,  240,  244,  245,  257 ; 
from  England,  2,  3,  4,  5,  8,  11,  12, 
13,  14,  15,  24,  25,  26,  28,  55,  69,  70, 
117 ;  from  Illinois,  226  ;  from  Indi- 
ana, 200  n.,  226 ;  from  Ireland,  78, 
87,  87  n.,  88,  160 ;  from  Kentucky, 
182,  196,  198,  206,  218,  226,  236; 
from^Long  Island,  55,  67, 136,  214  n.; 
from  Maine,  8,  9,  151,  152,  194,  200 
n.,  212,  213,  214,  216  n.,  227,  231  n., 
237,  239  n.,  240  n.,  245,  259;  from 
Maryland,  179,  181,  200  n. ;  from 
Massachusetts,  8,  9,  10,  14,  18,  19, 
21,  22,  26,  31,  33,  34,  54,  63,  64,  65, 
66,  68,  83,  84,  87,  89,  90,  95,  96,  109, 

112,  113,  114,  115,  116,  117,  125  n., 
126, 127, 128, 129,  140,  141, 143, 145, 
161, 152,  155, 157,  158, 159,  161, 162, 

167  n.,  168  n.,  175, 176, 177,  178,  179, 
180,  181, 188, 189,  192,  193,  196, 199, 
200  n.,  201,  202,  210, 211,  213,  214  n., 
215,  216  n.,  218,  227,  228,  231,  232, 
239  n.,  240,  244,  245,  246,  258 ;  from 
Mississippi,  218 ;  from  Missouri,  236 ; 
from  New  Hampshire,  8,  9,  32,  54, 
88, 89,  90  n.,  109,  113,  114,  115,  129, 
130,  140,  141,  144,  159  n.,   167  n., 

168  n.,  177,  194, 200  n.,  202,  204,  205, 

211,  216  n.,  227,  228,  231  n.,  239  n., 


INDEX 


287 


240,  241,  242,  243,  244,  245,  259; 
from  New  Jersey,  95,  96,  111,  116  n., 
117,  136,  144,  146,  151,  153,  158, 
169  n.,  178  n.,  183, 192,  200  n.,  214  n.; 
from  New  York,  8,  9,  79,  116,  117, 
129,  144, 146,  151, 152,153,  182, 183, 
186,  199,  200  n.,  212,  216  n.,  231, 
232,  239,  246,  259 ;  from  North  Car- 
olina, 128,  181, 198,  199,  200  n.,  206; 
from  Ohio,  199,  200  n.,  226, 230, 231 ; 
from  Pennsylvania,  8,  9, 128,  169  n., 
179, 181, 182,  183, 192, 193,  199,  200 
n.,  244 ;  from  Rhode  Island,  67, 110, 
112,  113,  115,  125  n.,  140,  143,  144, 
146,  157, 158, 159  n.,  168  n.,  175, 177, 
194,  200  n.,  203,  211, 212,  213, 216  n., 
227,  228,  232,  233,  239  n.,  245,  258 ; 
from  Scotland,  55,  159  n.,  176 ;  from 
South  Carolina,  96,  181,  198,  200  n., 
206  ;  from  Tennessee,  128,  198,  199, 
200  n.,  226,  236  ;  from  Vermont,  8, 
9,  155, 157,  160,  169  n.,  185, 186, 199, 
200  n.,  201,  202,  203,  206,  207,  210, 
211,  212,  216  n.,  227,  228,  229,  230, 
231  n.,  237, 239  n.,  240, 244,  245,  246, 
259 ;  from  Virginia,  178  n.,181,  182, 
183,  192,  193,  196,  198,  200  n.,  206, 
231  n.,  232. 

Endicott,  John,  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Colony,  15. 

Enfield,  Connecticut,  64,  80,  111,  129 
n.,  245. 

England,  1, 4,  5,  7,  23,  25,  26, 28,  31, 48, 
55,  72,  77,  81,  84.  See  also  Emigra- 
tion. 

English  names  in  New  England,  11. 

Episcopal  Church,  of  Worthington, 
Ohio,  180. 

Erie  Canal,  222,  225,  227;  effect  of, 
upon  settlement  of  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin,  222. 

Erie  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

Erving,  Massachusetts,  140  n. 

Essex,  Vermont,  143. 

Essex  County,  England,  14  n.,  26. 

Essex  County,  Massachusetts,  264. 

Essex  County,  New  York,  102. 

Evanston,  Illinois,  "Biblical  Institute" 
of,  218. 


Evansville,  Indiana,  201. 

Exeter,  Maine,  141. 

Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  31,  32,  89, 

177,  230. 
Exeter,  Pennsylvania,  124  n. 

Fairchild,  President  James,  187. 

Fairfax,  Vermont,  143,  144,  202. 

Fairfield,  Connecticut,  24,  26,  55,  60  n., 
67,  92,  93  n.,  201. 

Fairfield,  Illinois,  257  n. 

Fairfield,  New  Jersey,  67. 

Fairfield,  Vermont,  143. 

Fairfield  County,  Connecticut,  161. 

Fair  Haven,  Vermont,  167  n. 

Falmouth,  Maine,  85,  182. 

Falmouth,  Massachusetts,  49,  109. 

Farmer,  John,  map  of  Michigan,  226. 

Farraington,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  112, 
151  n. 

Farmington,  New  York,  158. 

Farmington,  Ohio,  185  n. 

Farmington,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

Federalist  Party,  The,  decline  of,  267, 
268. 

Ferrisburgh,  Vermont,  143. 

Field,  Marshall,  216  n. 

Fisher's  Island,  27,  45. 

Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  98. 

Fletcher,  Calvin,  199,  202,  203. 

Flint,  James,  on  Illinois  settlers,  148 
n. ;  on  Indiana  settlers,  ibid. ;  on 
Kentucky  settlers,  ibid. ;  on  Ohio 
settlers,  ibid. ;  on  Pennsylvania  set- 
tlers, ibid. 

Flint,  Timothy,  on  Ohio  settlers,  183, 
184,  185. 

Florence,  New  York,  163. 

Florida,  Massachusetts,  140  n. 

Foot,  Capt.  Moses,  159. 

Forbes,  John,  and  Co.,  Mobile,  Ala- 
bama, 168  n. 

Ford,  Ex-Gov.  Thomas,  on  early  set- 
tlers of  Illinois,  209  n. 

Fort  Dearborn,  Illinois,  225. 

Fort  Dummer,  Vermont,  90. 

Fort  Duquesne,  108. 

Fort  Herkimer,  New  York,  154. 

Fort  Mcintosh,  treaty  of,  173. 


INDEX 


Fort  Oswego,  New  York,  157. 

Fort  Schuyler,  New  York,  154. 

Fort  Stanwix,  154. 

Fort  Stanwix,  treaty  of,  118,  173. 

*♦  Fortune,"  The,  13. 

Framingham,  Massachusetts,  31,  62, 
63  n.,  77  n. 

Franklin,  Col.  John,  151  n. 

Frary,  Samuel,  49. 

Free  silver  agitation,  7. 

Freedom,  Maine,  141. 

Freemen  in  colonies,  12,  13,  15,  17,  20, 
37,  38. 

FreesoQ  Party,  The,  187,  202,  269. 

French  Canadian  emigrants,  141,  142. 

Frenehtown,  Michigan,  222,  224  n. 

Frenchtown,  Rhode  Island,  63. 

Frontier,  The,  unique  feature  of  Amer- 
ican history,  1,  172,  173 ;  radicalism 
of,  2,  4,  5,  71,  72,  73,  80,  81,  137 ; 
character  of,  6,  7,  8,  70,  71,  72,  73, 
80,  81,  99,  100,  103,  104,  105,  106, 
136, 147, 148, 149,  150, 166, 167, 181, 
182, 184, 185, 191,  192,  198,  199,  203, 
204, 207,  208, 251, 252,  255,  256, 260, 
261 ;  adaptation  to,  261,  262 ;  reac- 
tion upon  older  communities,  262, 
263,  264,  265,  266,  267,  268,  269, 
270 ;  protection  for,  60. 

Frontier,  extent  of,  14,  15,  23,  33,  34, 
35,  36,  51,  52,  58,  90,  139,  181,  182, 
183, 193,206,  221, 222,  251,  252,  253, 
254,  255. 

Frontier  building,  causes  of,  2,  3,  4, 
5,  24,  25,  26,  27,  29,  49,  50,  51,  71, 
72,  99, 100,  101,  117, 120,  166, 198, 
207,  208, 213, 229, 250,  251,  259, 260, 
261. 

Frontiersmen  in  the  Hevolntion,  128, 
130. 

Fur  trading,  3,  19  n.,  21, 118, 155. 

Galena,  Illinois,  236. 

Garland,  Maine,  141. 

•'  Gaspee  "  affair.  The,  177. 

Gaylord,  family  name,  124  n. 

Gazetteers,  influence  of,  on  settlement, 

211,  260. 
Geauga  County,  Ohio,  179. 


General  Court  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony,  17,  18,  29,  30,  33, 35,  50,  60, 
62,  79,  82,  83,  84,  85,  86,  88  n.,  110, 
135. 

"  Genesee  country,"  The,  148, 164, 166  ; 
Congregationalists  in,  164. 

Genesee  River,  The,  158. 

Geneseo,  Illinois,  216. 

Geneva,  New  York,  161. 

Genoa,  New  York,  162. 

Georgetown,  Maine,  88,  113. 

Georgia,  New  England  colony  in.  See 
Colonies. 

German  Flats,  New  York,  159. 

Ghent,  treaty  of,  183,  197. 

Gibson  County,  Indiana,  196. 

Gilman,  family  name  of,  177. 

Gilmanton,  New  Hampshire,  134,  211. 

Gilsum,  New  Hampshire,  112,  216  n. 

Glastenbury,  Connecticut,  142. 

Glocester,  Rhode  Island,  91  n.,  144. 

Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  16,  28, 
87. 

Gloucester  County,  Vermont,  popula- 
tion in  1771,  117. 

Goffstown,  New  Hampshire,  202. 

Gore,  Obadiah,  of  Norwich,  Connecti- 
cut, 121  n. 

Gorham,  Maine,  86. 

Gorham,  Nathaniel,  156. 

Goshen,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  257  n, 

Gosport,  New  Hampshire,  32. 

Gould,  Jay,  161. 

Gouldsborough,  Maine,  141. 

Government ;  in  Connecticut  Colony, 
20,  37,  38,  45 ;  in  Illinois,  217,  218 ; 
in  Long  Island,  34, 38 ;  in  Maine,  32, 
33, 38 ;  in  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony, 
15,  37,  38 ;  in  New  Hampshire,  32, 
38 ;  in  New  Jersey,  54,  56  ;  in  New 
York,  47, 48, 165,  166  ;  in  Plymouth 
Colony,  11, 12,  37 ;  in  Pennsylvania 
settlements,  121,  122,  123,  124,  125  ; 
in  Rhode  Island,  33,  38. 

Grafton,  Massachusetts,  79  n. 

Granby,  Connecticut,  58,  179,  202. 

Granby,  Massachusetts,  79. 

Granby,  Vermont,  145. 

Grand  Isle,  Vermont,  143,  201. 


-J 


INDEX 


289 


Granville,  Massachusetts,  156, 180, 181, 
258  n. 

Granville,  New  York,  167  n. 

Granville,  Ohio,  180, 181, 192 ;  Congre- 
gational  Church  of,  180,  188  ;  Epis- 
copal Church  of,  188;  Presbyterian 
churches  of,  188. 

Granville,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

Gravesend,  Long  Island,  34. 

Great  Barrington,  Massachusetts,  79, 
109,  167  n. 

Green  Bay  Railroad,  The,  246  n. 

Green  County,  Wisconsin,  237. 

Green  Mountains,  The,  153. 

"  Green  Mountain  Boys,"  The,  128. 

Green  River,  New  York,  167  n. 

Greencastle,  Pennsylvania,  232  n. 

Greene,  Griffin,  177. 

Greene  County,  Tennessee,  128,  199. 

Greenland,  New  Hampshire,  61. 

Greenville,  treaty  of,  173. 

Greenville,  New  York,  257  n. 

Greenwich,  Massachusetts,  240  n. 

Greenwich,  Ohio,  178. 

Greenwich,  Rhode  Island,  64  n.,  178, 
203. 

Greenwood,  Maine,  141. 

Grenada,  territory  of,  118. 

Grinnell,  Iowa,  187, 247  n. 

Groton,  Connecticut,  64. 

Groton,  Massachusetts,  58  n.,  143  n., 
216  n. 

Groton,  New  Hampshire,  245. 

Groton,  Vermont,  143  n.,  144. 

Guilford,  Connecticut,  25,  26,  51,  53, 66 
n.,  117,  162,  168  n.,  257  n. 

Guilford  County,  North  Carolina,  127, 
128,  199. 

Guilford,  Vermont,  257  n. 

Haddam,  Connecticut,  51. 

Hadley,  Massachusetts,  50,  58  n.,  79, 

111,  146,  216  n. 
Hale,  Nathan,  132  n. 
Halifax,  Massachusetts,  62. 
Hall,  Dr.  Lyman,  97. 
Hamden,  Connecticut,  24  n.,  111. 
Hamilton,  New  York,  231  n. 
Hamilton  College,  New  York,  161. 


Hampden,  Maine,  114,  130. 
Hampshire    colony.    The,    in    Bureau 

County,  niinois,  213. 
Hampshire  County,  Massachusetts,  79, 

162,  202;  revolt  of,  in  1786,  266. 
Hampshire   Missionary  Society,    The, 

164. 
Hampstead,  Long  Island,  55. 
Hampstead,  New  Hampshire,  177. 
Hampton,  New  Hampshire,  31,  32,  61, 

84  n. 
Hancock,  Massachusetts,  110. 
Hanover,  Illinois.    See  Metamora. 
Hanover,  Massachusetts,  168  n. 
Hanover,  New  Hampshire,  129, 130, 133. 
Hanover,  Pennsylvania,  121  n.,  124  n. 
Hanson,  Massachusetts,  62,  216  n. 
Hardwick,  Massachusetts,  116,  129  n., 

143. 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  9,  27,   31,  51, 

65,  66  n.,  92,  93,  100,  111,  122,  127, 

142,  151, 168  n.,  176,  181,  233. 
Hartford,  Ohio,  185  n. 
Hartford,  Vermont,  116,  244. 
Hartford  County,  Connecticut,  201. 
Hartland,  Connecticut,   92,  109,   111, 

146,  168  n. 
Hartland,  Maine,  141. 
Hartland,  Vermont,  245. 
Harvard  College,  39,  63  n.,  69,  150. 
Harwich,  Massachusetts,  227. 
Harwinton,  Connecticut,  92. 
Haskel,  family  name,  124  n. 
Hatfield,  Massachusetts,  50,  58  n.,  79, 

80. 
Haverhill,  Massachusetts,  32,  54,  64, 

89, 113,  114. 
Haverhill,  New  Hampshire,  129  n. 
Hazen,  General,  142  n. 
"  Hazen  road,"  The,  142  n. 
Hebron,  Connecticut,  66,  80, 112,  167  n. 
Hebron,  Maine,  114. 
Henry  County,  Illinois,  colonies  in,  215, 

216. 
Hermon,  Maine,  141. 
Hersey,  Ira,  213,  214. 
Hertfordshire,  England,  26  n. 
Hill,  New  Hampshire  (first called  Ne-w 

Chester),  134. 


INDEX 


Hillsboroug^h,  New  Hampshire,  89, 134. 
Hillsdale  County,  Michigan,  227,  228. 
Hinesburg-h,  Vermont,  143. 
Hingham,  Eng-land,  16. 
Hingham,  Massachusetts,  16,   112   n., 

141. 
Hinsdale,  Massachusetts,  110. 
Hinsdale,  New  Hampshire,  90. 
Hinsdale  College,  Michigan,  187. 
Hinsdale  family.  The,  49. 
Hobart,  Peter,  168  n. 
Hog  Island,  32. 
Holden,  Massachusetts,  143. 
Holland  Land  Company  of  New  York, 

165, 172. 
HoUis,  New  Hampshire,  129  n. 
Holmes,  William,  18. 
Homestead  Act,  The,  270. 
Honesdale,  Pennsylvania,  152. 
Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  18,  174. 
Hooksett,  New  Hampshire,  143. 
Hoosick,  New  York,  232  n. 
"Hoosier,"  The,  character  of,  197. 
Hopkins,  Edward,  63  n. 
Hopkins,  Samuel  Miles,  161, 167  n. 
Hopkinton,  Massachusetts,  63  n.,  78  n. 
Hopkinton,  New  Hampshire,  164. 
Hopkinton,  Rhode  Island,  50. 
Horse-stealing,  6,  7. 
Hotchkiss,  family  name,  127. 
Housatonic  River,  The,  26,  79,  80,  93, 

103. 
Housatonic  Valley,  Massachusetts,  91, 

103. 
House-raisings,  7. 
Hovey,  E.  O.,  205. 
Hubbardton,  Vermont,  167  n. 
Hudson,  New  Hampshire,  61. 
Hudson,  New  York,  155. 
Hudson  River,  The,  9,  48,  59,  79,  95, 

129,  153,  155,  172. 
Huguenot  refugees,  63,  69,  70. 
Hull,  Massachusetts,  14. 
Huntington,  Long  Island,  55. 
Huntington,  Massachusetts  (first  called 

Norwich),  109. 
Huntington,  Vermont,  144,  201. 
Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne,  31,  33. 
Hyde  Park,  Vermont,  144. 


Illinois,  sectional  antagonism  in,  208, 
209,  217 ;  settlement  of,  see  Settle- 
ment ;  emigration  from,  see  Emigra- 
tion. 

Illinois  College,  Illinois,  207,  216. 

Indiana,  128,  222;  emigration  from, 
see  Emigration;  public  schools  of, 
204,  205 ;  settlement  of,  see  Settle- 
ment. 

Indian  treaties  after  the  Revolution, 
173, 174 ;  basis  of  settlement  of  west, 
173,  174. 

Indian  wars,  23,  24,  43,  56,  57,  58,  59, 
60,  61,  62,  63,  64,  76,  77,  85,  86,  87, 
101, 102, 108, 109, 182,  212, 213,  236. 

Indianapolis,  Indiana,  201,  202,  203; 
New  England  Society  of,  201. 

Industry  in  England,  3,  100,  270. 

Intervales,  17. 

Iowa,  8,  247  n. 

Iowa  College,  Iowa,  187. 

Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  16,  32, 64,  84  n. 

Ira,  Vermont,  182  n. 

Isles  of  Shoals,  The,  32,  36. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  268. 

Jackson,  Maine,  141. 

Jamaica,  Long  Island,  55. 

James  I,  King  of  England,  2,  3. 

James  River,  The,  1. 

Jamestown,  Rhode  Island,  64  n. 

Janesville,  Wisconsin,  244. 

Jay,     Maine     (first     called     Phips's 

Canada),  141. 
Jefferson,  Michigan,  227,  228. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  183,  223  n. 
Jefferson  County,  New  York,  158. 
Jefferson  County,  Tennessee,  128,  199. 
Jennings  County,  Indiana,  198. 
Jericho,  Vermont,  245. 
Jersey,  Island  of,  48. 
Johnson,  Vermont,  144. 
Jones,  family  name,  119  n. 
Judd,  Major  William,  151  n. 
Judea,  Pennsylvania,  122  n. 
Judson,  Lewis,  168  n. 

Kalamazoo,  Michigan,  227. 
Kansas,  247  n. 


INDEX 


291 


Kaskaskia,  Illinois,  215  n. 

Keene,  New  Hampshire,  224  n. 

Kennebec  County,  Maine,  57. 

Kennebec  River,  Maine,  13,  14,  23. 

Kenosha,  Wisconsin,  243. 

Kent,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  124  n. 

Kent,  England,  13. 

Kent  County,  Michigan,  227. 

Kentucky,  emigration  from.  See  Emi- 
gration. 

Kewanee,  Illinois,  212;  character  of 
colony,  212. 

Kilbourne,  James,  179,  180. 

Kilkenny,  New  Hampshire,  145. 

Killing  worth,  Connecticut,  51,  257  n. 

Kimball,  family  name,  119  n. 

King  George's  War,  77,  87,  90. 

King  Philip's  War,  43,  56,  57,  58,  76. 

King  William's  War,  59. 

Kingfield,  Maine,  141. 

Kingston,  Massachusetts,  141. 

Kingston,  New  Hampshire,  61. 

Kingston,  Pennsylvania,  121  n.,  124  n. 

Kingston,  Rhode  Island,  33  n.,  64  n. 

Kiikland,  New  York,  154,  159,  163. 

Kittery,  Maine,  32,  104. 

Knapp,  family  name,  127. 

Kokomo,  Indiana,  205. 

Lackaway  district,  Pennsylvania,  124  n., 
125. 

Lafayette,  New  York,  162. 

La  Grange,  Illinois,  216. 

La  Grange  County,  Indiana,  201. 

Lake  Champlain,  98,  153. 

Lake  County,  Indiana,  200,  203,  204. 

Lake  County,  Ohio,  179. 

Lake  Erie,  174,  178. 

Lake  Michigan,  209,  225,  236, 237. 

Lake  Prairie,  Indiana,  "New  Hamp- 
shire settlement"  on.  See  Lowell, 
Indiana. 

Lakeville,  Massachusetts,  62. 

Lancaster,  Massachusetts,  30, 49,  58  n., 
61,  77  n. 

Lancaster,  New  Hampshire,  112. 

Lancaster,  Ohio,  182  n. 

Lanesborough,  Massachusetts,  143. 

La  Porte  County,  Indiana,  201, 202. 


Laud,  William,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 44. 
Law,  John,  81. 
Lawrence,  Kansas,  247  n. 
Lebanon,  Connecticut,  92,  93  n.,  112, 

116,  124  n.,  133,  146,  168  n.,  176  n., 

201,  216  n. 
Lebanon,  New  Hampshire,  112, 167  n. 
Lebanon,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Lee,  Maine,  145. 
Lee,  Massachusetts,  109,  113  n. 
Leicester,  Massachusetts,  78. 
Lenox,  Massachusetts,  80. 
Lenox,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Leominster,  Massachusetts,  227. 
Lewis  County,  New  York,  158. 
Lexington,  Massachusetts,  77  n. 
Leyden,  Holland,  11. 
Liberty  County,  Georgia,  97. 
Liberty  Party,  The,  187. 
Licking  County,  Ohio,  188. 
Limerick,  Maine,  231  n. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  270. 
Lincoln  County,  Maine,  population  in 

1764,  114  n. 
Linlithgow,  Scotland,  176. 
Lisbon,  Connecticut,  65. 
Litchfield,  Connecticut,  92,  93  n.,  101, 

llln.,  142,  143,  257n. 
Litchfield,  New  Hampshire,  89. 
Litchfield,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Litchfield    County,    Connecticut,  124, 

158,  182  n.,  206. 
Little  Compton,  Rhode  Island,  63,  91. 
Log-rolling,  8. 
London,  England,  24. 
Londonderry,  Ireland,  88. 
Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  88,  96, 

114,  167  n.,  240  n. 
Londonderry,  Vermont,  115,  116. 
Long  Island,  36,  52,  66,  67,  95,  110, 

116  n. 
Lorain  County,  Ohio,  185. 
Lord,  Rev.  Joseph,  68. 
Lovewell,    Capt.    John    (also   spelled 

Lovel),  86. 
Lovewell's  War,  76  n.,  86. 
Lowell,  Indiana,  202. 
Lowell,  Massachusetts,  143. 


INDEX 


Lowell,  Vermont,  143. 
LowvUle,  New  York,  158. 
Ludlow,  Vermont,  143,  199,  202. 
Lunenburg,  Massachusetts,  78,  98,  145. 
Luzerne    County,    Pennsylvania,   131, 

151,  152. 
Lycoming  County,  Pennsylvania,  70  n. 
Lyman,  General  Phineas,  125, 126, 127, 

133,  176. 
Lyman,  New  Hampshire,  134. 
Lyman  colony  of  Mississippi,  125-127, 

168  n.,  176. 
Lyme,    Connecticut,    109,    111,    112, 

124  n.,  176  n. 
Lyme,  New  Hampshire,  112. 
Lynn,  Massachusetts,  14,  15,  28,  31, 

32,  34. 

Machias,  Maine,  216  n.,  237. 
Mackinaw,  Michigan,  222. 
Madawaska  Plantation,  Maine,  142. 
Madison,  Wisconsin,  243,  244. 
Madison  County,  Illinois,  196,  206. 
Mahoning  Covmty,  Ohio,  179. 
Maidstone,  Vermont,  134. 
Maine,  obstacles  to  settlement  of ,  87, 88, 

102 ;  settlement  of,  see  Settlement ; 

emigration  from,  see  Emigration. 
Maine,   quarrel    over    proposition    for 

statehood,  264,  265,  266. 
Manchester,  Maine,  114. 
Manchester,  Massachusetts,  109  n. 
Manhattan  Island,  35. 
Manlius,  New  York,  161. 
Manlius  Academy,  New  York,  161. 
Mansfield,  Connecticut,  60  n.,  64,  112, 

115,  206. 
"Manual  Labor  School,"  at  Oberlin, 

Ohio,  186. 
Maps,  how  made,  Appendix  A. 
Marblehead,  Massachusetts,  14,  87. 
Marcellus,  New  York,  162,  163,  164. 
Marcy,  New  York,  160. 
Marietta,    Ohio,  175,  176,     177,  178, 

182,  192,  230,  231 ;  Congregational 

Church  of,  175. 
Marietta  College,  Ohio,  176. 
Marlborough,  Massachusetts,  31,  58  n., 

63  n.,  77x1.,  80. 


Marlborough,  Vermont,  115. 

Marlow,  New  Hampshire,  112. 

Marshfield,  Massachusetts,  13. 

Martha's  Vineyard,  Massachusetts,  29, 
36,  110,  141,  155. 

Massachusetts,  8,  9,  23, 33,  34,  73, 155, 
156,  157,  158 ;  legislature  of,  156 ; 
settlement  of,  see  Settlement;  emi- 
gration from,  see  Emigration. 

Massachusetts  Bay,  1. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  The,  15. 

Mayflower,  The,  11. 

Maynard,  Massachusetts,  58  n. 

Maysville,  Kentucky,  182  n. 

McGregor,  Iowa,  258  n. 

McKean  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  152, 

Medfield,  Massachusetts,  49,  58  n.,  65, 
78. 

Medford,  Massachiisetts,  15. 

Medina,  New  York,  232  n. 

Medina  County,  Ohio,  182,  185. 

Medway,  Georgia,  96,  97. 

Meigs,  Return  Jonathan,  177. 

Mendon,  Massachusetts,  49,  58  n.,  65. 

Meriden,  Connecticut,  64. 

Merrimac,  Massachusetts,  49. 

Merrimac  River,  83,  84,  89. 

Metamora,  Illinois  (first  called  EEan- 
over),  211. 

Methodist  Church,  6. 

Mexican  War,  The,  cause  of,  270. 

Miami  University,  Ohio,  189. 

Michigan,  147,  169  n. ;  character  of 
settlers,  224;  early  laws  of,  223; 
governors  of,  231,  232 ;  lack  of  know- 
ledge concerning,  before  1820,  221, 
222 ;  settlement  of,  see  Settlement. 

"  Michigania,"  popular  song  of,  about 
1837,  226,  227. 

Middle  States,  The,  9. 

Middleborough,  Massachusetts,  58  n., 
177. 

Middlebury,  Indiana,  200  n. 

Middlebury,  Massachusetts,  93  n. 

Middlebury,  Vermont,  129. 

Middlefield,  Massachusetts,  161,  257  n. 

Middlesex,  Vermont,  142. 

Middleton,  Massachusetts,  176  n. 


INDEX 


293 


Middletown,  Connecticut,  90,  93  n.,  115, 

127, 154,  176  n.,  177. 
Middletown,  New  Hampshire,  113  n. 
Middletown,  New  Jersey,  67. 
Middletown,  Rhode  Island,  91  n. 
Milford,    Connecticut,  25  n.,   26,  53, 

66  n.,  92. 
Milford,  Massachusetts,  58  n. 
"Military     Adventurers"    Company, 

126,  127  n. 
Millbury,  Massachusetts,  94  n. 
Mills,  Prof.  Caleb,  204,  205. 
Milton,  Massachusetts,  68. 
Milton,  Vermont,  245. 
Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  236,  243. 
Milwaukee  and  Mississippi  Bailroad, 

The,  246  n. 
Minnesota,  8,  241,  247  n. 
Missionary  Societies,  Connecticut,  164 ; 

Hampshire,  164;   Hopkinton   (New 

Hampshire),  164. 
Mississippi  River,  The,  118,  182,  193, 

194,  196,  209,  236,  237. 
Mobile,  Alabama,  168  n. 
Mobile  Bay,  Alabama,  9. 
Mohawk  River,  The,  157,  243. 
Mohawk  Valley,  The,  154,  174. 
Monkton,  Vermont,  129. 
Monroe,  Massachusetts,  140  n. 
Monroe,  Michigan,  224  n.,  228,  229. 
Monson,  Massachusetts,  240  n. 
Montana,  7. 
Montgomery  County,  Pennsylvania,  70 

n. 
Monticello,  Illinois,  Female  Seminary 

of,  218  n. 
Mormonism,  167. 
Morris,  Colonel,  67. 
Morris,  Robert,  156  n. 
Morris  County,  New  Jersey,  emigrants 

from,  144  n. 
Morristown,  Illinois,  216. 
Morristown,  Vermont,  144,  146. 
Mt.  Clemens,  Michigan,  224  n. 
Mt.    Hope   colony.  The,   of  McLean 

County,  Illinois,  213. 
Muddy    River,    Massachusetts.     See 

Brookline. 
Muncy,  Pennsylvania,  122  n. 


Muskingum  Academy,  Ohio,  176. 
Muskingum  River,  The,  174. 

Nantucket  Island,  36,  114,  118  n.,  128, 

155,  202. 
Narragansett  Bay,  51. 
Narragansett  Indians,  23. 
'•  Narragansett  Townships,"  83,  84,  86, 

89,  91  n. 
Nashaway,  Massachusetts.    See   Lan- 
caster. 
Nashaway  Company,  The,  30. 
Nashua,  New  Hampshire,  57. 
Nashua  River,  Massachusetts,  .30. 
Natchez,  Mississippi,  9,  127, 168  n. 
Navigation  Acts,  71. 
Needham,  Massachusetts,  63  n. 
Neighborhoods,  removal  by,  155.   See 

also  Colonies. 
Nelson,  New  Hampshire,  227. 
Newark,  New  Jersey,  9,  53,  54,  67, 117, 

144,  146,  257  n. 
Newark,  Ohio,  181  n. 
New  Ashford,  Massachusetts,  110. 
New  Bedford,  Massachusetts,  58  n. 
New  Boston,  New  Hampshire,  89. 
New  Braintree,  Massachusetts,  85  n. 
Newbury,  Massachusetts,  16, 25,  32, 54, 

84  n. 
Newbury,  Vermont,  116;  theological 

seminary  of,  218. 
New  Canaan,  Connecticut,  199. 
New  Chester,  New  Hampshire.      See 

Hill. 
New  Durham,  New  Hampshire,  113  n. 
New  England,  3,  22,  46,  47,  56,  57,  67, 

77,  92, 96.    See  also  different  states. 
New  England  houses,  10,  160. 
New  Fairfield,  Connecticut,  103  n. 
Newfane,  Vermont,  207. 
Newfield,  New  York,  162. 
New  France,  102,  108. 
New  Garden,  North  Carolina,  128. 
New  Gloucester,  Maine,  87. 
New  Gorham,  Maine,  84  n. 
New  Hampshire,    9,  155;   settlement 

of,  see  Settlement ;  emigration  from, 

see  Emigration. 
New  Hampton,  New  Hampshire,  218  d. 


294 


INDEX 


New  Hartford,  Connecticut,  92. 
New  Hartford,  New  York,  160. 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  24,  25  n.,  53, 
70,  93  n.,  100,  109,  115,  133,  168  n., 
186,  202,  214  n. 
New  Haven,  Ohio,  185  n. 
New  Jersey,  48,  52,  53,  54,  72,  111, 
116  n.,  151,  153,  158,   178;  settle- 
ment of,  see  Settlement ;  emigration 
from,  see  Emigration. 
New  Jersey,  The    College    of.      See 

Princeton  University. 
New  London,  Connecticut,  27,  45,  64, 

93  n.,  129  n. 
New  Lyme,  Ohio,  185  n. 
New  Marlborough,  Massachusetts,  80. 
New  Milford,  Connecticut,  143,  227. 
New  Milford,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
New  Netherlaud  Colony,  The,  46,  47, 

48,  53.     See  also  New  York. 
New  Plymouth,  Massachusetts.     See 

Plymouth. 
Newport,  New  Hampshire,  112,  216  n. 
Newport,  Pennsylvania,  124  n. 
Newport,  Rhode  Island,  26,  46,  91. 
New  Portland,  Maine,  141. 
New  Roxbury,  Connecticut.  See  Wood- 
stock. 
New  Shoreham,  Rhode  Island,  36. 
Newton,  Ohio,  185  n. 
Newtown,  Connecticut,  60  n.,  65,  116. 
New  Town,  Pennsylvania,  70  n. 
Newtowne,  Connecticut.   See  Hartford. 
Newtowne,  Massachusetts.     See  Cam- 
bridge. 
New  Vineyard,  Maine,  141. 
New  York,  8,  156 ;  settlement  of,  see 
Settlement;     emigration  from,   see 
Emigration. 
New  York  Colony,  The,  53. 
New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford 

Railroad,  The,  36  n. 
Niagara,  New  York,  168,  169. 
Niagara  County,  New  York,  165. 
NicoUs,  Colonel,  46. 
"  Nine  Partners'  Tract,"  New  York,  95, 

116,  129. 
"Nipmuck  Country,"  The,  65. 
Noble  County,  Indiana,  201. 


Nonantum,  Massachusetts,  68. 
Norfolk,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  216  n. 
Norfolk  County,  England,  14  n. 
Norfolk  County,  Massachusetts,  32. 
Norman,  William,  68. 
Norridgewock,  Maine,  114. 
Northampton,  Massachusetts,  50,  58  n., 

66,  79,  80,  90,  110  n.,  127,  164,  213, 

266. 
Northampton  Colony,  The,  in  La  Salle 

County,  Dlinois,  213. 
North  Carolina,  70  n. 
Northfield,  Massachusetts,  50,  57, 58  s*) 

90. 
Northfield,  Minnesota,  187. 
Northfield,  Ohio,  185  n. 
Northfield,  Vermont,  143, 144. 
North  Haven,  Connecticut,  24  n. 
North  Hero,  Vermont,  143. 
North  Killingworth,  Connecticut,  112. 
North  Kingstown,  Rhode  Island.    See 

Kingston. 
North  Lyme,  Connecticut,  176  n. 
Northwest,  The,  8. 
Northwest  Territory,  The,  175,  208. 
Northwestern  University,  Illinois,  218. 
Norwalk,  Connecticut,  27,  60  n.,  93  n., 

178. 
Norwalk,  Ohio,  178. 
Norwich,   Connecticut,    9,     109,    117, 

121  n.,  124  n.,  162,  213,  227,  231. 
Norwich,  Vermont,  115. 
Norwich  Colony,    The,    in    La  Salle 

County,  Illinois,  213. 
Nova  Scotia,  59, 77,  86,  118  n. 

Oberlin,  Ohio,  174, 185,  186,  187, 188, 
233. 

Occupations  in  New  England,  270,  271. 

Occupations  of  settlers,  12,  13,  14,  15, 
16,  18,  19,  24,  25,  27,  28,  29,  30,  32, 
33.  55,  56,  63,  64,  71,  72,  100,  101, 
153, 161, 166, 183,  184, 198, 206, 207, 
208. 

Oglethorpe,  James,  96. 

Ohio,  147,  222 ;  settlement  of,  see  Settle- 
ment; emigration  from,  see  Emi- 
gration. 

"  Ohio  fever,"  The,  183. 


INDEX 


295 


Ohio  Land  Company,  The,  175. 

Ohio  Purchase,  The,  178  n. 

Ohio  Kiver,  The,  174,  175,  178,  182, 

196,  225. 
Ohio  Valley,  The,  108. 
Oldham,  John,  18,  19  n. 
"  Old  Brookfield  Road,"  The,  142. 
"  Old  Connecticut  Path,"  The,  31,  97. 
Oliver,  Capt.  Robert,  177. 
Olivet  College,  Michigan,  187,  232, 233, 

234. 
Omaha  Railroad  system,  The,  246  n. 
"  Oneida  community,"  The,  167. 
Oneida  County,  New  York,  154,  158, 

159,  163. 
Onondaga  County,  New  York,  161. 
Orange  County,  New  York,  96, 125, 151, 

200  n. 
Orange  County,  Vermont,  202. 
Ordinance  of  1787,  The,  173. 
Oregon,  247  n. 

Orford,  New  Hampshire,  112. 
Orland,  Indiana,  202. 
Orland  Academy,  Indiana,  202. 
Orleans,  Massachusetts,  28  n. 
Orwell,  Ohio,  185  n. 
Orwell,  Vermont,  161  n. 
Otis,  Massachusetts,  80. 
Otsego,  Michigan,  Normal  School  of, 

232. 
Ottawa,  Illinois,  214. 
Otter  Creek,  Vermont,  98  n. 
Ovid,  New  York,  197  n. 
Owego,  New  York,  163. 
Oxford,  Massachusetts,  63,  65,  109  n. 
Oxford  University,  Ohio,  189. 
Oyster  River,  New  Hampshire.     See 

Durham. 

Pacific  Coast,  10. 

Page,  John,  211. 

Paine,  Gen.  Edward,  179. 

Painesville,  Ohio,  179. 

Palfrey,  John  G.,  on  population,  70. 

Palmer,  Massachusetts,  78  n.,    79  n., 

94  n. 
Palmer,  Michigan,  224  n. 
Palmyra,  Maine,  141  n. 
Palmyra,  Ohio,  179. 


Panic  of  1837,  causes  of,  269;  effect 
on  settlement,  183, 210,  213, 226, 237. 

Panton,  Vermont,  129,  142. 

Paris,  New  York,  257  n. 

Parks,  family  name,  119  n. 

Parliament,  British,  7 ;  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, 43 ;  legislation  by,  100,  105. 

Parson,  Joseph,  79. 

Patchin,  Deacon,  162. 

Pawlet,  Vermont,  167  n.,  186. 

Peacham,  Vermont,  129  n. 

Pelham,  Massachusetts,  78  n.,  110  n. 

Pemaquid,  Maine,  14. 

Pembroke,  Massachusetts,  110  n. 

Pembroke,  New  Hampshire  (first 
called  Suncook),  89. 

Pennsylvania,  settlement  of,  see  Settle- 
ment ;  emigration  from,  see  Emigra- 
tion. 

Pennsylvanian,  The,  8. 

Penobscot  County,  Maine,  145,  202. 

Penobscot  River,  The,  35,  113. 

"Pequot  Country,"  The,  27. 

Pequot  Indians,  The,  23,  24. 

"  Pequot  Path,"  The,  35,  36  n. 

Pequot  War,  The,  23,  24. 

Perrin,  John,  227,  228. 

Peru,  Massachusetts,  110,  111. 

Petersham,  Massachusetts,  90  n. 

Phelps,  family  name,  127. 

Phelps,  Captain  Matthew,  126. 

Phelps,  Oliver,  156. 

Phelps-Gorham  tract,  The,  156,  172. 

Philip,  King,  43,  56,  57, 58. 

Phillips,  Rev.  Mr.,  19  n. 

Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  founded,  132^ 

Phillipse  patent,  New  York,  95. 

Phips,  Captain,  141  n. 

Pierce,  Dr.  George  E.,  189. 

Pierce,  Rev.  John  D.,  232. 

Piermont,  New  Hampshire,  144. 

Piscataqua,  Maine,  14. 

Piscataqua,  New  Hampshire,  54. 

Piscataqua  River,  88,  90. 

Piscataquis  County,  Maine,  145. 

Piscataway,  New  Jersey,  54. 

Pittsburgh,  New  Hampshire,  140. 

Pittsfield,  Illinois,  211,  215  n. 

Pittsfield,  Maine,  141. 


296 


INDEX 


Pittsfield,  Massachnsetts,  80,  143  n., 
211,  215  n. 

Pittsfield,  Vermont,  143  n. 

Pittsford,  Vermont,  116. 

Pittston,  Pennsylvania,  121  n.,  124  n. 

Plainfield,  Connecticut,  60  n.,  65,  93  n., 
112, 124  n.,  160,  244. 

Plainfield,  New  Hampshire,  112,  146. 

Plaistow,  New  Hampshire,  144. 

Plymouth,  Connecticut,  121  n.,  154, 
178. 

Plymouth,  England,  11. 

Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  10,  11, 20  n., 
22,  23,49, 84  n.,  121  n.,  155, 177, 181 ; 
character  of  town,  12. 

Plymouth,  New  Hampshire,  112. 

Plymouth,  Ohio,  178. 

Plymouth,  Pennsylvania,  121, 124  n. 

Plymouth  Church,  Indianapolis,  Indi- 
ana, 205. 

Plymouth  Company  in  England,  The, 
19. 

Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts, 
112  n.,  114. 

Plymouth  Trading  Company,  The,  18. 

Plympton  family,  The,  49. 

Pomf ret,  Connecticut,  19  n.,  65  n.,  90  n. 

Pomfret,  Vermont,  116. 

Pontiftc,  Michigan,  224  n. 

Pope,  Nathaniel,  209. 

Poplin,  New  Hampshire,  167  n. 

Population,  56,  67,  69,  70,  89,  90,  91, 
92,  94,  95, 96, 113,  114, 117, 119, 120 
140, 141, 145, 152,  168,  169, 193,  194, 
196,  200  n.,  216  n.,  217,  222,  224, 
226,  237,  271,  Appendix  B. 

Population,  nativity  of,  Tables,  Appen- 
dix B. 

Population  of  New  England,  decrease 
in  nineteenth  century,  271,  272. 

Portage  County,  Ohio,  179,  181. 

Portland,  Maine,  14,  57,  86,  182. 

Port  Lawrence,  Michigan,  224  n. 

Portsmouth,  England,  117. 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire  (first 
called  Strawberry  Bank),  14,  32, 
33  n.,  61,  89,  113  n. 

Portsmouth,  Rhode  Island,  33. 

Poultuey,  Vermont,  151. 


Prairie  church,  The,  244. 

Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  223  n., 
237. 

Prairies,  suspicion  concerning,  in  early 
settlers,  184,  214,  215. 

Presbyteries,  Cayuga,  163 ;  Tioga,  163 ; 
Cleveland,  187. 

Presbyteries,  establishment  in  New 
York,  163. 

Presbyterian  Church,  The,  6,  163,  164, 
234. 

Prescott,  Massachusetts.  See  Lancaa- 
ter. 

Preston,  Connecticut,  64,  115, 146,  231. 

Preston,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

Presumpscot  River,  83. 

Princeton  University,  54. 

Proclamation  of  1763,  118. 

Proprietors  and  settlers,  quarrels  be- 
tween, 65,  66, 133, 134, 135,  136, 262, 
263. 

Protection  for  frontier,  60, 60  n. 

Protectorate,  The,  43. 

Providence,  Pennsylvania,  124  n. 

Providence,  Rhode  Island,  22,  33,  46, 
91, 144,  146,  213,  245. 

Provincetown,  Massachusetts,  62. 

Prussia,  schools  of,  233;  Cousin's  re- 
port on,  233. 

Public  improvements,  97,  98. 

Public  land,  1,  2,  5,  171,  172, 173, 174, 
188. 

Public  Schools  in  Indiana,  204,  205. 

Puritan,  The,  17. 

Putnam,  Connecticut,  36  n. 

Putnam,  General  Rufus,  126,  175, 176. 

Putnam  County,  New  York,  95. 

Putney,  Vermont,  210. 

Pynchon,  John,  50. 

Pynchon,  William,  21,  180. 

Quakers,  The,  127,  128,  199. 
Quebec,  territory  of,  118. 
Queen  Anne's  War,  59. 
Quilting-bees,  8. 
Quincy,  Illinois,  207. 
Quincy,  Massachusetts,  14. 
Quinnipiack,    Connecticut,    see    New 
Haven. 


INDEX 


Racine,  Wisconsin,  240. 

Racine  County,  Wisconsin,  240,  269. 

Radicalism,  2,  5,  24,  25,  27.  See  also 
Frontier,  character  of. 

Randolph,  Vermont,  129. 

Randolph  County,  Indiana,  199. 

Ravenna,  Ohio,  179. 

Reaction  in  New  England  against  cleri- 
cal control,  267. 

Reading,  Massachusetts,  68. 

Reed,  John,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts, 
103  n. 

Rehoboth,  Massachusetts,  57,  109  n., 
167  n. 

Representation,  actual,  128;  virtual, 
129. 

Republican  Party,  The,  187,  230,  270. 

Restoration  of  1660,  The,  43,  45,  53. 

Revolution,  The  American,  causes,  128, 
129 ;  effect  on  the  frontier,  129,  130, 
131. 

Rice,  Harvey,  189. 

Richmond,  Indiana,  201. 

Richmond,  Massachusetts,  110,  257  n., 
264. 

Richmond,  New  Hampshire,  112, 167  n. 

Richmond,  New  York,  155. 

Richmond,  Rhode  Island,  50,  112. 

Ridgefield,  Connecticut,  60  n. 

Riggs,  John,  of  Derby,  Connecticut,  92. 

Ripon  College,  Wisconsin,  187. 

Robinson,  John,  203,  204. 

Robinson,  Capt.  Samuel,  116. 

Rochester,  New  Hampshire,  89. 

Rochester,  New  York,  159  n. 

Rock  River  Valley,  Wisconsin,  The, 
237,  242. 

Rockford,  Illinois,  209,  210;  conven- 
tion of  1840  in,  209,  210. 

Rockford  College,  Illinois,  218  n. 

Rockingham,  Vermont,  90  n. 

Rockingham  County,  North  Carolina, 
199. 

Rockland  County,  North  Carolina,  199. 

Rockton,  Illinois,  213. 

Rocky  Mountains,  The,  1,  194. 

Routes  into  Illinois,  207. 

Routes  into  Michigan,  224,  225,  226, 
227,  228,  230. 


Routes  into  New  York  about  1778  to 

1800,  153, 154,  156,  157. 
Routes  into  Ohio,  174,  182  n. 
Routes  of  settlement  into  Wisconsin, 

236,  237,  238. 
Rowley,  Massachusetts,  28,  114. 
Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  15, 21,  26,  65, 

259  n. 
Roxbury,  Vermont,  146. 
Royalist  party,  The,  43. 
Royalston,  Massachusetts,  112  n.,  228, 

240  n. 
Rumney,  New  Hampshire,  144. 
Rupert,  Vermont,  116. 
Rutland,  Massachusetts,  77,  78,  90  n., 

143,  176,  176  n. 
Rutland,  Vermont,  216  n. 
Rutland  County,  Vermont,  230. 
Rye,  New  Hampshire,  31. 
Rye,  New  York,  70. 
Ryswick,  The  peace  of,  59,  76. 

Saco,  Maine,  14,  85. 

Saco  River,  The,  83. 

Sagadahoc,  Maine,  14. 

Sagadahoc  territory,  The,  88. 

Sag  Harbor,  Long  Island,  95. 

Saginaw,  Michigan,  224  n. 

St.  Anthony's  Falls,  126  n. 

St.  George,  Maine,  14. 

St.  Johnsbury,  Vermont,  144. 

St.  Lawrence  County,  New  York,  161  n. 

St.  Stephens,  Alabama,  168  n. 

Salem,  Massachusetts,  14,15,  79n.,82, 

175. 
Salem,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Salisbury,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  116, 257  n. 
Salisbury,  England,  28. 
Salisbury,  Massachusetts,  28,  31. 
Salisbury,  Vermont, :  1 16. 
Sandisfield,  Massachusetts,  80,  167  n., 

240  n. 
Sandwich,  Massachusetts,  28, 84  n.,  109. 
Sangamon  County,  Illinois,  214  n. 
Santiago  de  Cuba,  168  n. 
Saybrook,  Connecticut,  21,  45,  66,  69, 

176  n.,  257  n. 
Scarborough,  Maine,  86. 
Schenectady,  New  York,  160. 


2d8 


INDEX 


School  companies  in  Ohio,  189. 

Schuylkill  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

*'  Scioto  Company,"  The,  of  1787,  179 
n. ;  of  1802,  179. 

Scituate,  Massachusetts,  13,  28,  64,  84 
n.,  110. 

Scituate,  Rhode  Island,  64, 91  n.,  168  n., 
228,  233. 

Scotch-Irish,  The,  78,  87,  88,  96,  114, 
151. 

Searsburgh,  Vermont,  145. 

Sebec,  Maine,  141. 

Seekonk,  Massachusetts,  57. 

Settlement,  mode  of,  in  Illinois,  206, 
207,  208  ;  in  Indiana,  198,  203,  204; 
in  New  Jersey,  55  n. ;  in  New  York, 
153,  155, 156, 157, 160;  in  Ohio,  174, 
175, 177, 179,  184, 186. 

Settlement,  of  Connecticut,  18,  19,  20, 
24,  25,  26,  27,  28,  51,  52,  64,  65,  66, 
91,  92,  93,94, 102, 103, 109,  111,  251, 
252 ;  of  Georgia,  96,  97 ;  of  Illinois, 
196, 197,  206, 207, 208,  209, 210,  211, 
212, 213,  214,  215,  216,  217,218, 219, 
254,  255  ;  of  Indiana,  128,  196,  197, 
198,  199,  200,  201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 
206,  254,  255 ;  of  Long  Island,  33, 

34,  52,  95,  96,  251,  252,  257;  of 
Maine,  14,  32,  33,  50,  57,  60,  61,  83, 
84, 85,  86,  87,  88,  102, 103, 109, 113, 
114,  131,  141,  142  n.,  171,  251,  252, 
253,  254;  of  Massachusetts,  11,  12, 

13,  14,  15,  16,  17, 18, 19,  21,  22,  28, 
29,  30,  31,  49,  50,  57, 58,  61,  62,  63, 
77,  78,  79, 80,  81,  82,  83,  84,  85, 103, 
108, 109, 110,  111,  140, 251,252,  257 ; 
of  Michigan,  221, 222,  223,  224,  225, 
226,  227,  228,  229,  230, 231, 232, 233, 
234,  235,  255;  of  Mississippi,  125, 
126,  127,  253;  of  New  Hampshire, 

14,  31,  32,  50,  57,  61,  82,  83,  84,  88, 
89,  90,  109,  111,  112, 113,  131,  140, 
171,  251,  252,  253,  254,  257,  258 ;  of 
New  Jersey,  "52,  53,  54,  55, 56,  66,  67, 
95,  251,  252,  257;  of  New  York,  34, 

35,  66, 95,  96, 153, 154, 155, 156,  157, 
158, 159, 160,  161, 162, 166, 167,  168, 
169,  252,  253,  257 ;  of  North  Caro- 
lina, 127, 128, 253 ;  of  Ohio,  128, 171, 


172, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 
181, 182, 183,  184,  185, 186,  187, 188, 
191, 192,  193, 194,  253,  254, 255, 257, 
258  ;  of  Pennsylvania,  118,  119,  120, 
121, 122, 123,  124,  125, 131,  150, 151, 
152,  253,  257, 258  ;  of  Rhode  Island, 
22,  33, 50,  51,  58,  63,  64,  90,  91,  251, 
252 ;  of  South  Carolina,  68,  96 ;  of 
Tennessee,  128 ;  of  Vermont,  90, 109, 
115, 116,  117, 131, 142,  143, 144, 145, 
171,  251,  252,  253,  254,  257,  258 ;  of 
Wisconsin,  236,  237,  238,  239,  240, 
241,  242, 243,  244,  245, 246,  247, 255. 

Settlement  after  1781  in  New  England, 
146,  147,  171. 

Settlement,  r^sum^  of,  250-259. 

Settlers  in  New  England,  character,  3, 
6, 36,  37,  38,  39 ;  in  Connecticut,  146; 
in  lUinois,  207,  208 ;  in  Indiana,  198, 
199 ;  in  Maine,  147 ;  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, 147 ;  in  New  York,  160,  161, 
162,  163,  164,  166,  167,  168,  169;  in 
Ohio,  174,  175,  176,  177,  178,  179, 
180,  181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 
191,  192  ;  in  Vermont,  146,  147. 

Sevier  County,  Tennessee,  128,  199. 

Shaftsbury,  Vermont,  115,  167  n. 

Sharon,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  216  n. 

Shay's  Rebellion,  266,  267. 

Sheboygan,  Wisconsin,  243. 

Sheepscot,  Maine,  14. 

Sheffield,  Massachusetts,  79. 

Shelburne,  Lord,  126  n. 

Shelbume,  Vermont,  143. 

Sheldon,  family  name,  127. 

Sheldon,  Vermont,  143. 

Shelter  Island,  34. 

Shepard,  Rev.  Thomas,  20  n. 

Sherborn,  Massachusetts,  63  n. 

Sherman,  Connecticut,  201. 

Shipherd,Rev.  John,  174,  186. 

Shirley,  Massachusetts,  109. 

Shoreham,  Vermont,  227. 

Shrewsbury,  New  Jersey,  52,  53. 

Shrewsbury,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

Shurtleff,  Benjamin,  218  n. 

Shurtleff  College,  Illinois,  218  n. 

Sibley,  Cyrus,  168  n. 

Sibley,  Solomon,  230. 


INDEX 


Sills,  family  name,  124  n. 

Simsbury,  Connecticut,  58,  60  n.,  93  n., 
94,  111. 

Six  Nations,  The,  119. 

Smith,  Azariah,  161. 

Smith,  Joseph,  founder  of  Mormonism, 
167. 

Smithfield,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

Smithfield,  Rhode  Island,  91  n.,  115, 
116. 

Somerset,  Vermont,  129  n. 

Somersetshire,  England,  8. 

South,  The,  9. 

Southampton,  Long  Island, 9, 26, 27,34. 

South  Berwick,  Maine,  14. 

Southbury,  Connecticut,  58, 182  n. 

South  Carolina,  68.  See  also  under  Em- 
igration and  Settlement. 

South  Hadley,  Massachusetts,  79. 

Southold,  Long  Island,  34. 

South  Reading,  Massachusetts,  28  n. 

Speculation  in  land,  30,  81,  82,  83,  84, 
99,  100,  101,  156,  171,  172,  173, 183. 

Spencer,  Massachusetts,  232. 

Spooner,  Senator  John  C,  245,  246. 

Springfield,  Massachusetts,  21,  22,  49, 
58,  127. 

Springfield,  Missouri,  187. 

Springfield,  New  Jersey,  67. 

Springport,  New  York,  232  n. 

Sproat,  Col.  Ebenezer,  177. 

"Squatters'  Union,"  The,  of  Lake 
County,  Indiana,  203,  204 ;  of  Du- 
Page  County,  Illinois,  212. 

Stamford,  Connecticut,  27, 227. 

Stamford,  New  York,  161. 

Starbuck,  family  name,  199  n. 

Starbuck,  William,  128. 

Steamboat  navigation,  rise  of,  222, 223. 

Steuben  County,  Indiana,  200,  202. 

Stewart,  Philo,  186. 

Stockbridge,  Massachusetts,  257  n. 

Stocker,  John,  202. 

Stockholm,  New  York,  161  n. 

Stoddard,  New  Hampshire,  112. 

Stonington,  Connecticut,  64,  143,  244. 

Stonington,  Illinois,  212. 

Story,  Rev.  Daniel,  177. 

Stoughton,  Massachusetts,  177. 


Stow,  Massachusetts,  58  n.,  62,  64. 

Stow,  Ohio,  192  n. 

Strafford,  Vermont,  116. 

Stratford,  Connecticut,  27, 52,  58, 60  n., 

64,  66  n.,  168  n. 
Stratton,  Vermont,  143. 
Strawberry    Bank,   New    Hampshire. 

See  Portsmouth. 
Strickland,  John,  55. 
Strong,  Benjamin,  197  n. 
Sturbridge,  Massachusetts  (first  called 

New  Medfield),  78,  90  n. 
Stuyvesant,  Governor  Peter,  53. 
Success,  New  Hampshire,  145. 
Sudbury,  Massachusetts,  28, 31,  35,  49, 

63  n.,  68,  77  n. 
Sudbury  Marsh,  The,  30, 
Suifield,  Connecticut,  80,  95,  111,  115, 

127,  142. 
Suffolk  County,  Massachusetts,  201. 
Sullivan,  General,  campaign  in  Wyo- 
ming Valley,  130,  150. 
Sunderland,  Massachusetts,  240  n. 
Surrey  County,  England,  25. 
Susquehanna  Company,  118,  119,  120, 

121, 122,  123,  125,  151. 
Susquehanna     County,    Pennsylvania, 

151. 
Susquehanna  River,  Pennsylvania,  120, 

123,  153,  155,  157. 
Sutton,    Massachusetts,  94  n.,  110  n., 

112  n. 
Sutton,  Vermont,  144. 
Swain,  family  name,  199  n. 
Swain,  Elihu,  128. 
Swansey,  Rhode  Island,  56. 
Swanton,  Vermont,  143,  146. 
Swanton  Falls,  Vermont,  216  n. 
Swanzey,  New  Hampshire,  89. 
Switzerland  County,  Indiana,  198. 
Sylvan  Township,  Michigan,  228. 
"  Symmes  Purchase,"  The,  178  n. 

Tabor  College,  Iowa,  187. 
Talmadge,  Ohio,  192  n. 
Taunton,  Massachusetts,  23. 
Tazewell  County,  Illinois,  211, 212, 213. 
Tecumseh,  Indian  chieftain,  222. 
Tecumseh,  Nebraska,  258  n. 


900 


INDEX 


Temple,  Maine,  141. 

Tennessee,  126 ;  settlement  of,  see  Set- 
tlement ;  emigration  from,  see  Emi- 
gration. 

Texas,  settlement  and  annexation,  269, 
270. 

Thetford,  Vermont,  116. 

Thomas,  family  name,  119  n. 

Thomas,  Rev.  Isaiah,  152. 

Thomaston,  Maine,  87  n. 

Threshing  in  the  West,  8. 

Tinmouth,  Vermont,  116. 

Tioga  County,  Pennsylvania,  151,  152. 

Tioga  Point,  New  York,  153. 

Tioga  River,  The,  151,  152. 

Tisbury,  Massachusetts,  84  n. 

Tisdale,  Nathaniel,  132  n. 

Tiverton,  Rhode  Island,  63, 91, 177. 

Tolland,  Connecticut,  79n.,93  n.,  109. 

Tolland,  Massachusetts,  145. 

Topsham,  Maine,  87. 

Torrington,  Connecticut,  92,  93,  201. 

Town-meeting,  The,  33,  34,  37,  38,  .45, 
46,  47,  48,  73,  136 ;  in  Connecticut, 
20,  37,  38,  45,  65 ;  in  Illinois,  217, 
218 ;  in  Indiana,  206  ;  in  Long  Island, 
34,  37,  47  ;  in  Maine,  32,  33,  38 ;  in 
Massachusetts,  10,  12,  13,  17,  20, 37, 
38,  46  ;  in  Michigan,  10, 234,  235  ;  in 
New  Hampshire,  32,  38  ;  in  New  Jer- 
sey, 54 ;  in  New  York,  47,  48,  164, 
165  ;  in  Ohio,  190,  191 ;  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 121,  122,  123,  124,  125;  in 
Rhode  Island,  46  ;  in  Wisconsin,  238, 
239. 

Town-meeting,  difiFerence  between 
Michigan  and  New  England,  235,236. 

Town  officers  in  New  York,  165, 191. 

Township  board  in  Michigan,  235,  236. 

Township  system  in  Wisconsin,  238, 
239. 

Tracey,  family  name,  119  n.,  124  n. 

Trade  and  commerce,  3. 

Trade  and  Plantations,  Lords  of,  70. 

"  Trail  "  to  Lancaster,  The,  36. 

*'  Trail"  to  Springfield,  The,  35. 

Tremont,  Illinois,  211,  212. 

Trinity  College,  Connecticut,  233. 

Troy,  New  York,  117,  153. 


Troy,  Wisconsin,  244. 
Truax's,  Michigan,  224  n. 
True,  Dr.  Jabez,  177. 
Truro,  Massachusetts,  62. 
Tunbridge,  Vermont,  129  n.,  240  n. 
Tupper,  Gen.  Benjamin,  175,  177. 
Turner,  Professor  Frederick  J.,  2  n., 

270  n. 
Twining,  William,  70  n. 
Tyler,  fanodly  name,  119  n. 
Tyng,  Jonathan,  57. 
Tyngsborough,  Massachusetts,  49,  62. 
Tyringham,  Massachusetts,  80. 

Unadilla,  New  York,  153. 

Union,  Connecticut,  79  n. 

Union,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

University  of  Ohio,  The,  176. 

Utica,  New  York,  158. 

Utrecht,  Peace  of,  59,  76,  81,  91,  101. 

Vamum,  James,  177. 

Vassalborough,  Maine,  114. 

Venango  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 

Vergennes,  Vermont,  116. 

Vermont,  8,  9,  88  n.,  135,  136,  155, 
157,  160,  167,  168  n. ;  settlement  of, 
see  Settlement ;  emigration  from,  see 
Emigration. 

Vermontville,  Michigan,  228,  229,  230. 

Vermontville  Colony,  The.  See  Ver- 
montville, Michigan. 

Vernon,  Vermont,  90. 

Verona,  New  York,  257  n. 

Victory,  Vermont,  145. 

Vincennes,  Indiana,  196. 

Virginia,  30,  178  n. ;  emigration  from, 
see  Emigration. 

Vii^inian,  The,  8. 

Voluntown,  Connecticut,  124  n. 

Wabash  College,  Indiana,  204,  205. 

Wabash  River,  Indiana,  The,  197  n. 

Wabash  and  Erie  Canal,  The,  in  In- 
diana, 203  n. 

Wadsworth,  James,  on  emigration  to 
the  "  Genesee  country,"  156,  157. 

Waldo,  General,  heirs  of,  113. 

Waldoborough,  Maine,  87  n.,  113. 


INDEX 


301 


Wales,  Massachusetts,  79  n. 
Wallace,  Sir  James,  177  n. 
Wallingford,   Connecticut,   24  n.,    51, 

58,  64,  80,  93  n.,  Ill  n. 
Wallingford,  Vermont,  116. 
Walworth  County,  Wisconsin,  244. 
"  Wanderlust "  of  Anglo-Saxon,  4. 
War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  The, 

102. 
War  of  the  Palatinate,  The,  59. 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  The, 

59. 
War  of  1812,  The,  268. 
Ware,  Massachusetts,  79,  103  n. 
Wareham,  Massachusetts,  62. 
Warren,  Connecticut,  93  n.,  168  n. 
Warren,  Maine,  87  n. 
Warren,  New  Hampshire,  134. 
Warren,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Warren,  Rhode  Island,  63,  91. 
Warren  County,  Pennsylvania,  151. 
Warsaw,  New  York,  167  n. 
Warwick,  Rhode  Island,  33,  46,  58, 

177. 
Washington,  George,  108. 
Washington  College,  Connecticut.  See 

Trinity  College. 
Washington  County,  Indiana,  198. 
Washington  County,  Maine,  145. 
Washtenaw  County,  Michigan,  228. 
Waterbury,  Connecticut,  58, 60  n.,  143, 

161. 
Waterbury,  Vermont,  143. 
Waterford,  Maine,  114. 
Watertown,  Connecticut.  See  Wethers- 
field. 
Watertown,  Massachusetts,  15,  55. 
Wayne,  Anthony,  226. 
Wayne  County,  Indiana,  199,  201. 
Wayne  County,  Pennsylvania,  119  n., 

152. 
Weare,  New  Hampshire,  112. 
Weathersfield,  Vermont,  115. 
Weavers,  English,  28. 
Webster,  Massachusetts,  140  n. 
Webster- Ashburton  Treaty,  The,  140. 
Weed,  family  name,  127. 
Wellfleet,  Massachusetts,  28  n. 
Wells,  Deacon  Asa,  145. 


Wells,  Maine,  32,  33. 

Wellsborough,  Pennsylvania,  152  n. 

Wentworth,  Governor,  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, 111. 

Westborough,  Massachusetts,  176  n. 

West  Bridgewater,  Massachusetts,  202. 

Westchester,  New  York,  35,  66. 

Westchester  County,  New  York,  35, 
66. 

Westerly,  Rhode  Island,  50,  58. 

West  Greenwich,  Rhode  Island,  51. 

"  Western  Reserve,"  The,  174,  178  n., 
179,  181,  182,  184. 

Western  Reserve  College,  Ohio.  See 
Western  Reserve  University. 

Western  Reserve  University,  The, 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  10,  189,  190. 

Westfield,     Massachusetts,     79,    196, 

257  n. 

Westfield,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 
Westfield,  Vermont,  143,  144. 
West  Florida,  the  Governor  of,  127. 
West  Florida,  the  territory  of,  118. 
Westford,  Massachusetts,  240  n. 
Westford,  Vermont,  143. 
West  Hartford,  Connecticut,  80. 
West  Indies,  The,  71. 
West  Jersey.  See  New  Jersey. 
Westminster,  Massachusetts,  134,  135. 
Westminster,  Vermont,  90,  144,  227. 
Westmoreland,  New  York,  257  n. 
Westmoreland,  Pennsylvania,  124, 130. 
West  River,  Vermont,  98  n. 
West  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  158. 
Wethersfield,  Connecticut,   9,    18,   19, 

26,  27,  28,  51,  55,  80,  104,  115,  127, 

142,  202,  212. 
Wethersfield,  Illinois,  216. 
Wethersfield  colony,  The,  in  Illinois. 

See  Kewanee. 
Weybridge,  Vermont,  227. 
Weymouth,  Massachusetts,  14, 49,  141, 

258  n. 

Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  182  n. 
Wheelock,  Rev.  Eleazar,  133. 
Wheelwright,  Rev.  John,  31,  32. 
Whig  Party,  The,  186,  202,  230,  239  n. 
Whipple,  Abraham,  177. 
Whitcomb,  Asa,  117  n. 


INDEX 


Whitcomb,  James,  203. 

White,  Dr.  Horace,  241. 

White,  Judge  Hugh,  154,  260. 

White  River,  Indiana.  See  Wabash 
River. 

Whitefield,  New  Hampshire,  140. 

Whitesboro,  New  York,  155, 260. 

Whitest©  wn,  New  York.  See  Whites- 
boro. 

Whitfield  Company,  The,  25. 

Whiting,  Vermont,  129. 

Whitman  College,  Washing^n,  9, 
247  n. 

Whitney,  Prof.  H.  M.,  240  n.,  241,  243. 

Wilbraham,  Massachusetts;  168  n. 

Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania,  120  n.,  121, 
124  n. 

Wilkinson,  Jemima,  166. 

Willamette  Valley,  Washington,  10, 
247  n. 

Williams,  Roger,  22,  23. 

Williamsburg,  Massachusetts,  110. 

Williarastown,  Massachusetts,  80, 108, 
143,  240  n. 

Willimantic,  Connecticut,  36  n. 

Willington,  Connecticut,  91,  92. 

Williston,  Vermont,  143. 

Winchendon,  Massachusetts,  98. 

Winchester,  Connecticut,  92,  111. 

Winchester,  New  Hampshire,  90  n., 
216  n. 

Windham,  Connecticut,  60  n.,  64,  79  n., 
93  n.,  133. 

Windham,  Maine  (first  called  New 
Marblehead),  87. 

Windham,  Ohio,  181. 

Windham,  Pennsylvania,  125  n. 

Windham  County,  Connecticut,  emi- 
gration from,  201,  258  n. 

Windham  County,  Vermont,  202. 

Windsor,  Connecticut,  19,  20,  51,  58, 
66,  92,  93,  111,  127. 

Windsor,  Massachusetts,  110,  111. 

Windsor,  Ohio,  185  n. 

Windsor,  Vermont,  160,  203. 

Windsor  County,  Vermont,  227. 

Winnebago  County,  Illinois,  209,  213. 

Winnicumet,  New  Hampshire.  See 
Hampton. 


"  Winter  privileges,"  94. 

Winthrop,  Fitz-John,  73  n. 

Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  21,  27,  45,  46. 

Winthrop,  Judge,  152. 

Winthrop-Cotton  administration.  The, 
18. 

Wiscasset,  Maine,  57. 

Wisconsin,  6,  147,  169  n.,  209,  210; 
character  of,  246,  247  ;  Vermont  emi- 
grants in,  Appendix  C ;  settlement 
of,  see  Settlement ;  school  system  of, 
243 ;  relation  to  Michigan  school  sys- 
tem, 243. 

Wisconsin  Central  Railroad,  The, 
246  n. 

Wisconsin  River  Valley,  The,  237. 

Woburn,  Massachusetts,  29,  64, 65. 

Wolcott,  family  name,  127. 

Wolcott,  George,  201. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  151  n. 

Wolcott,  Roger,  of  Windsor,  Connecti- 
cut, 92,  101. 

Wolcott,  New  Hampshire,  158. 

Wolcottville,  Indiana,  201. 

Wolfeborough,  New  Hampshire,  113  n. 

"  Wolfeborough  Road,"  The,  142. 

Woodbridge,  Connecticut,  24  n. 

Woodbridge,  New  Jersey,  54. 

Woodbridge,  William,  231. 

Woodbury,  Connecticut,  52,  58,  60  n., 
64,  94,  111  n.,  129  n. 

Woodstock,  Connecticut,  65,  80,  227, 
258  n. 

Woodward,  Judge,  223  n.,  233  n. 

Woonsocket,  Rhode  Island,  50. 

Worcester,  Massachusetts,  50,  58  n., 
62,  90  n.,  112  n. 

Worcester,  Vermont,  144. 

Worcester  County,  Massachusetts,  77, 
78,  80,  103,  143,  201. 

Worthington,  Massachusetts,  143,  146. 

Worthington,  Minnesota,  247  n. 

Worthington,  Ohio,  179,  180. 

Worthington  College,  Ohio,  180. 

Wright,  Sir  James,  Governor  of 
Georgia,  97. 

Wyoming  Valley,  Pennsylvania,  120, 
130,  150;  destruction  in  1778,  130, 
131, 151, 162,  153,  155. 


INDEX 


Yale  College  (now  Yale  University), 
69,  133,  150,  189,  190,  216,  242. 

Yale  University.     See  Yale  College. 

Yarmouth,  Massachusetts,  28  n.,  54, 
84  n. 

York,  Maine,  14,  113. 


York  County,  Maine,  83,  114  n. 
Yorkshire,  England,  8,  26,  28. 
Young,  Brigham,  167. 

Zane,  Ebenezer,  182  n. 
"  Zane's  Trace,"  182  n. 


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